Onyx
by Galaxy Knight
Summary: After one of the seeding machines at the 'kindergarten' is disturbed, a new gem is created. Thrust into a new, strange world it's up to her to decide whether she'll go back to her old ways or forge a different path for herself, one that may lead to something greater than she even imagined.
1. Something new

Amethyst and Pearl were fighting, not in the figurative sense though, they were actually trading blows. Amethyst had taken Steven to the 'kindergarten' where she was created and raised; Pearl suspected she might go there and headed there herself to try and intervene. The result was a duel between the two gems who were normally just competitive rivals; Amethyst had Pearl wrapped in her dual whips.

"I'm not gonna let you remind me of everything I hate about myself!" Amethyst screamed.

She slammed down on the whips and two waves of powerful energy traveled through them, eventually reaching Pearl and resulting in a large explosion.

The explosion caused the container behind them began to wobble and tip over, Steven was quick enough to pull up a shield, but it wasn't wide enough to encompass him, Pearl, and Amethyst at the same time. The container toppled over, Pearl and Steven were safe but Amethyst couldn't be found; they began digging through the rubble to find her.

"Amethyst…Amethyst!" Steven cried out, hoping that she was okay.

While they were picking through the rubble Steven found something, a gemstone. He had feared the worst and showed it to Pearl.

"Pearl! Amethyst…she…I think…" He tried to get his thoughts out but he was too stricken with grief.

Pearl took the gem out of Steven's hands and examined it, it was indeed a Crystal Gemstone…but this wasn't Amethyst's gem, this gem was a solid black.

"It's another crystal gem." Pearl said in a low, surprised tone.

Suddenly, the gem began glowing with a bright pale light, in shock Pearl dropped it onto the ground and the light expanded forming a kind of human shape. This shape shifted for a moment of two until finally the light died down and it turned into a fully formed female. This woman was thin and tall, but not overly tall (about 5'7) her skin was a light gray and her hair was jet black with a matching skin tight sleeveless body suit and pants with a white cloth belt to keep it up. The body suit was open around her chest so they could see her black gem which was placed in roughly the same spot as Amethyst's (right above the chest cavity)

While she lay on the ground she looked asleep, but the moment Steven and Pearl got close she shot up with eyes wide open. She looked around at her environment, at the two people standing in front of her, and at her own body; none of it was familiar to her, nothing made sense.

Cautiously Steven stepped forward and gave her a little wave. "Hello… I'm Steven."

The new gem blinked a couple of times, and then mimicked his actions. She tried to speak to them "H-hi…" She said in a weak and hoarse voice.

This alien experience was broken up, however, as the warp pad whirred to life and Garnet appeared out of the coulomb of light.

"Get away from her!" Garnet cried out.

She pounded her fists together and formed her Garnet Gauntlets, she jumped up into the air and prepared to come crashing down on this new gem.

In a state of panic the gem's body moved faster than her mind could process and she quickly rolled out of the way, jumping back onto her feet to fight this new threat.

"Garnet, what are you doing?" Steven shouted, confused.

"She's a bad gem, I have to stop her!"

Garnet rushed to this gem and began throwing punches at her, she was quick enough to dodge a few but this body was till new and her reflexes were dull so Garnet connected quite a few times and sent the gem crashing to the ground.

Pearl and Steven ran up to Garnet, following the fight and trying to stop it.

"Garnet, what do you mean she is bad? She just appeared out of nothingness a few moments ago."

"I saw it in my visions, she's trouble and we have to get rid of her."

While she was distracted the new gem got up and quickly ran deeper inside the canyon to get away from her attacker, but Garnet did not give up easily and jumped high into the air in order to climb in the canyon's walls to catch up.

The gem ran below her as Garnet jumped from wall to wall of the narrow canyon, finally jumping down for another air attack. But this time the gem knew how to counter this attack; she rolled to the side so when Garnet came down her gauntlet got stuck in the rock, and while she was held in place the gem kicked her in the face and knocked her to the ground.

It was…exhilarating! The excitement of battle was coursing through her body and she began to remember all she knew about combat, techniques and tricks that she had used before.

As Garnet got back up again the new gem clutched her fist above her gem, which caused it to glow bright. Then she quickly extended her arm forward, sending out dozens of crystal shards at Garnet; a few of them managed to hit her but she blocked the rest with her gauntlets.

The gem decided to go on the offensive this time, as Garnet rushed towards her she rushed as well, and then when the two met she ducked a punch Garnet was throwing and grabbed her waist, preparing to suplex her into the ground. That was a mistake, Garnet was much stronger than this gem and wouldn't budge; to get out of her hold Garnet slammed her gauntlets down on her opponents back, which caused her immense pain, and then kicked her into a wall.

She was practically helpless at this point, everything hurt and she was afraid to get back up less she become more broken than she already was. Garnet stood over the broken woman menacingly, preparing to end her before Pearl and Steven finally caught up.

"Garnet stop!" Pearl demanded. "I don't care what you saw in your vision, killing a gem is wrong. Please…stop."

Garnet looked at Pearl, and then back down at the gem. She was conflicted, she knew what she had seen and she knew what may happen if she doesn't stop it, would it be worth it?

She walked away from the gem, slowly; Pearl and Steven looked relived that Garnet ended her senseless violence…no such luck.

Garnet quickly turned around and slammed into the ground so hard that it caused a crack in the earth, that crack traveled upwards until it caused the entire rock wall to come down on the gem, crushing her under a ton of dense rock.

"Garnet no!" Steven was now grabbing onto her leg, his eyes filling with tears. "W-why did you do that?"

"I promise I'll explain everything to you once this is over, but right now I just need to check that-"

"Garnet!" Pearl screamed, then she walked up to Garnet and slapped her in the face. She put more force into it than she had thought but even still the slap barely moved the massive gem. "I'm sorry, but I will not stand by and let you kill a gem! Explain yourself right now, or I will take you down."

"Pearl, just let me-" Suddenly Garnet's face had a look of revelation. "No…"

She rushed over to the large pile of rocks and tossed them to the side with ease, when she cleared them away she did not see the gem on the bottom.

"No no no! Where did she go?"

**Meanwhile…**

It was not easy, crawling out from under two tons of rock never is. The gem barely had enough strength to drag herself out from underneath that pile but she knew that if she didn't she would die. She was lucky, in the sense that her body hadn't given out on her yet and that these ravines were riddled with holes, one of which was big enough for her to crawl through and keep her out of site of the other gems.

After a few minutes of painful crawling across the ground she finally found her salvation: a warp pad. She was just awake enough to use it; she didn't care where it took her she just wanted to stay alive.

She painfully crawled on top of the pad and began to activate it, the light began to glow brighter and brighter until-

"Stop!" She heard someone cry.

She slowly turned her head and saw her assailant coming back for another try, but she was too late. Another half second later and she was beamed up through the pillar of light.

The gem found herself drifting through subspace, she was safe inside the stream but she didn't know what to expect when the journey stopped. Her body relaxed, the pain in all her muscles subsided, and she felt…peaceful.

But, like most things, this did not last. As the gem began to drift off she felt something happening to her body, she looked at her chest and saw the crystal on her gem glowing brighter and starting to cover her whole body in gemstone.

"No…don't do that…" She said to no one.

But she couldn't control it, her body was too badly damaged and now it was trying to protect her by sealing her inside a crystal chrysalis. Soon her whole body was covered and the crystal just kept growing and growing until it became a large crystal sphere and she was at the center.

She couldn't move inside the ball, and she slowly felt herself losing consciousness.

"_I can't go to sleep…please…not again…"_

Her eyes shut, and with no one to control the ball it began to drift, slowly leaving the stream and getting stuck in subspace. The sphere moved slowly, moving passed brilliant arrays of light and colors through the void of space, traveling for what seemed like an eternity.

Until finally, the sphere sped up and began moving faster and faster until it moved so quickly there was a trail of energy behind it and the gemstone began to heat up. If it got too hot the gem would crack, so the gem embedded in her chest crated a metal shielding around the stone that would absorb heat.

And so the ball continued on its expedient journey until finally it reached a destination: Earth.

**On Earth…**

The ball was traveling towards the planet, specifically Beach City at an incredible pace, the ball created an eye to try and find somewhere to land but it was moving too fast to change course or slow down. If it didn't do something soon it would end up hitting the planet and doing a massive amount of damage.

Luckily, four brave individuals on the ground below had the tools to stop it and using their combined efforts they aimed a Light Cannon at the incoming ball to destroy it. The cannon unleashed a massive array of energy that destroyed the ball, causing it to break apart into several large but mostly harmless chunks.

These heroes were the crystal gems, and they were admiring their work

"Steven, how did you get the cannon to work?" Pearl asked.

He didn't really know. "I just…said that thing dad always said."

"What, about pork rinds?"

"Hot dogs." Garnet corrected her.

As the debris from the ball fell there was something Steven noticed, there was one piece that was still headed right for them.

"Uh, guys, is there still supposed to be a chunk coming after us?" Steven said, nervous and confused.

The piece flew at them, quicker now that it was in the atmosphere. The rest of the crystal gems took notice of this and quickly got out of its way, Amethyst and Pearl jumped out of its path and Garnet grabbed Steven and Greg and carried them to safety.

Finally it crashed into the ground, making a large crater on the beach. This piece was tougher than the rest of the orb, and because it was at the center it was able to take most of the blast without cracking apart.

The gems slid to the bottom of the crater to examine what had fallen from the skies, the outside was made of a crystal that was such a deep black that you could only just barely see something inside of it.

"What is it?" Steven asked.

"Looks like some kinda crystal." Amethyst said. She smacked her fist on it to try and get it to break, but she only ended up hurting herself. She grabbed her hand in pain.

"Try it like this." Garnet said, matter of factly.

She summoned her crystal gauntlets and smashed into the crystal as hard as she could, causing it to shatter but leaving the center untouched. As the dust cleared from the previous strike all the gems could plainly see that inside of the crystal was a woman, with a gem inside her chest.

"It's another crystal gem." Pearl said, shocked that something like this was happening.

**And so begins, what I would like to be, a very loved series. I know you're tired of calling this character "new gem" so next time you get to learn her name (although you should really know it by know) Please leave any criticisms or suggestions for the story, they always help me improve, and I'll see you all on the next exciting chapter.**


	2. Settling in

"_Is she going to be okay?"_

The gem's mind stirred, she was starting to regain consciousness. She could hear a conversation happening relatively close by.

"_She'll be fine; gems are made of tough stuff."_

"_Actually I think it's due more to the fact that she was encased in a crystal shell. She looked pretty hurt to begin with."_

The gems eyes opened slowly, her vision was blurry and her head felt heavy. When her eyes refocused themselves she could see four figures above her, they were…the people from the ravine; they wanted her dead!

She tried to back up from them, but soon her back was against a wall. The ground underneath her felt soft and malleable, she looked down and saw not stone or earth but some sort of fabric, it was…soft.

Sensing the gems discomfort, Pearl raised her hands in a defensive manner. "Easy, we don't want to hurt you." She said in a comforting tone.

Now the gem, of course, had her doubts about trusting these people after what happened but she remembered that this woman was one of the ones who weren't trying to kill her. She did not trust the tall one through.

"Sorry…" She said, in a low tone.

"I must admit, I'm surprised to see another gem here on earth. Did you come from the home world?"

She thought about it. "Home world…I…"

She tried to remember where she came from, but every time she tried to remember to a time past a few hours ago she was drawing a blank. She couldn't remember anything about herself, and when she thought she had something she got a headache and it disappeared.

"I…don't remember where I came from."

Amethyst groaned as she noshed on a bag of potato chips. "Bummer, I mean if you don't remember where you're from that's like… a huge chunk missing from your life. Makes you feel kinda empty inside."

Pearl was surprised. "Amethyst, did you actually say something insightful?"

Pearl turned to see Amethyst shoving potato chips into her mouth in a very slovenly manner. "Wha's that?"

Pearl rolled her eyes and continued the conversation. "Do you at least remember your name?"

The gem thought about it for a moment and looked deep into her psyche; while nothing was stable she could hear one word being repeated over and over again.

"_Onyx…Onyx…ONYX!"_

Her eyes widened and she shot up, fully aware.

"Onyx…yes…that was my name."

Suddenly young Steven jumped up to the bed and looked at her curiously. "Onyx? Is that why you're gem is black?"

Onyx looked down at her gem and saw that it was indeed a dark black, that was its normal color…she thought.

"Yes…" She said slowly. "So, is there any of getting me home?"

The gems looked to the sides or down at the ground, out of discomfort it seemed.

"Um, well…the thing is…we used to have warp pads but…" Pearl tried to say.

"They don't work." Garnet said simply. "They haven't worked for centuries."

"Oh." Onyx said, disappointed that she had no way to get back home. Even though she didn't remember anything about her home she felt an undeniable connection to it.

"Alright." Amethyst interrupted. "If no one else is gonna ask it I will: What the heck were you doing inside a red eye?"

"Amethyst!" Pearl berated.

"Red…eye?" Onyx was confused.

"You didn't see it?" Steven said, scooting closer to the woman. "It was in the sky, it was huge, and when it went 'boosh' you came flying out of it in some kind of chrysalis."

"Nah, it was more like a shell." Amethyst added. "You seriously don't remember any of that?"

Onyx shook her head. "No, the last thing I remember was a few hours ago when I was floating in space."

She looked at the people in front of her, she had seen them recently and yet they do not remember her. Perhaps it is better this way, but she was still curious.

"Although…something tells me I was gone longer than a few hours."

Onyx moved her feet to the side of the bed and tried to stand up, but the minute she put pressure on her legs they became weak. She wobbled and almost fell over but Garnet reached out to grab her.

"Easy, you're still hurt. It'll be a couple of days before you're back to normal.

Onyx looked Garnet in the…glasses. The memories of Garnet assaulting her would not go away, and though it may have been irrational she didn't want to touch her at the moment.

She got out of Garnets grip and supported herself on the bead post instead. "I'll be fine."

Pearl stepped up to the two of them. "Well, while you're here you are our guest. If there's anything you need just ask us."

Onyx smiled for the first time that she could remember, and nodded. "Thank you miss."

Pearl gave an embarrassed laugh. "Oh please, don't call me miss, it makes me feel old. My name is Pearl-"

She pointed to the short purple woman. "This is Amethyst."

Then she pointed to the tall, intimidating red woman. "That's Garnet."

Finally the small boy with black hair popped up. "And I'm Steven! And together we are…the crystal gems!"

"Crystal...gems?" Onyx asked, she knew that she was a gem but not a crystal one.

"Yeah, we protect the Earth from evil monsters and evil and stuff. Hey! Maybe you could help us!" Steven elaborated.

This sounded appealing to Onyx, she did remember that in her fight with Garnet she felt drawn to battle; it felt good, and if she got to recreate that feeling and help in the process she considered it a win win.

"Steven, don't get too excited about this. Not every gem wants to-"

"I'll do it." Onyx said, interrupting Pearl's argument.

Pearl seemed surprised by her willingness to help. "What?"

"I'd like to help you, I may be your guest but I refuse to sit around all day and do nothing. This will give me purpose and it may help me figure out who I am."

The team stood in quiet contemplation; while it may not be wise to trust someone they just met they couldn't deny that another set of hands could be extremely useful.

"We would be glad to have you." Garnet said.

Amethyst chuckled a bit. "Yeah! Someone new around might liven things up around here."

"Well…before anything else we need your body to fully heal, after that we'll see how much combat skill you have and then we'll decide what you can do for us."

Onyx sighed and then lay back down on the bed. "Very well."

"For the moment don't worry about your missing memory, I'm sure that it'll come back in time."

"And if it doesn't you can just focus on what's happening now and make memories that way."

Pearl looked at Amethyst annoyingly, but then her look softened and she turned her attention back to Onyx.

"Just…get some rest, okay? Good night Onyx."

Onyx nodded. "Good night."

The rest of the gems walked away and Onyx was left to herself.

While she didn't need to sleep, per se, she thought that shutting off her brain for a little bit may help her take in everything and let her body fix itself up. Her eyes closed and he mind drifted off…

She was…alone. In a great black abyss that stretched on for miles she felt completely and utterly alone, completely empty on the inside. This was not your average loneliness, she felt like there was supposed to be something here, someone was supposed to be by her side but they weren't there. She was alone in this world and she would stay that way until this void could be filled or understood.

"_Onyx…"_ She heard a faint voice

Out in the distance, she could see it, there was a light and behind it were dozens of silhouettes. They felt familiar to her, they felt like home. She moved away from her spot and started running towards them.

"_Onyx…"_ the voice spoke louder

They were so far off, but she didn't care, she would keep running and running until she made it to them. She didn't want to feel this way. They were so close, the light was becoming blinding, their image became obscured for a moment and-

"_Onyx!"_ It screamed.

Onyx rose quickly in a state of panic, and rolled out of the bed onto the floor. She was less attentive than she had originally thought if a voice calling her name was enough to get her to freak out like this. She looked up from her position on the floor and saw that it was Steven who had gotten her up.

"Good morning." He said, in a perky voice.

She grabbed on to the sides of the bed and hoisted herself up on her feet; she didn't feel as weak as she did yesterday so that was a good thing.

"Good morning Steven." She replied simply.

He pulled out a plate of pancakes for her. "I made you breakfast!" He said proudly.

"Break…fast?" Onyx asked, she was tired of asking rhetorical questions but they things these people did confused her.

"It's food. I know Pearl said that gems don't normally eat food but Amethyst eats all the time so I thought maybe it would make you feel better."

He handed her the pancakes that were drizzled in syrup with a square of butter on the top. Then he handed her a fork and she could figure out for herself what she was supposed to do with it; she took the fork and stabbed a pancake, then placed it inside her mouth.

It was…interesting, gems couldn't taste the way other races can but she could feel the stickiness of the syrup and the softness of the pancake and it felt good as she chewed and swallowed it. She looked down at Steven, who seemed really proud with what he had done, and she gave him a thankful smile.

"Thank you Steven, this is…very nice of you."

"Glad you like it." And then he ran off to do…she had no idea what.

The rest of her recovery was straightforward; she didn't even have to wait another full day before she was back at 100% again. After that Pearl began doing stretches and stance training with Onyx to observe her form and see what she knew. This carried on for another day; Pearl and Onyx stood in the middle of the living room moving their arms and bodies in synchronization, imitating a close quarters fighting style.

Soon enough they stopped and Pearl clapped her hands together. "Excellent work Onyx, I can say without a doubt that your form is very good."

Onyx nodded. "Thank you Pearl, you possess a lot of skill yourself."

"Now all that's left is to see how you fair in actual combat. Let's step into the training room and-"

They were interrupted, however, and the warp pad whirred to life and Garnet appeared inside with a determined look on her face.

"Pearl, Amethyst, I need you."

Pearl turned around quickly and rushed to Garnet, Amethyst was upstairs so she slid down the banister and then flipped in midair, landing in front of Garnet and right beside Pearl.

"What's the matter Garnet?' Amethyst asked.

"I need you two to go get the Moon Goddess Statue from the sea cave."

Pearl seemed surprised. "Right now?"

"Tonight is the full moon, the only time that the statue will reveal itself and we don't have enough time to wait for the next one. "

Pearl nodded. "Alright, but I was just about to do combat practice with Onyx."

Onyx waved her hand. "Oh that's okay, I can just wait until you get back-"

"Nonsense, I can handle it." Garnet said.

That made Onyx freeze up, she was…hesitant to get into a fight with Garnet after seeing what she's seen. But she wasn't going to get over her fear if she didn't face it head on.

She gulped in her throat. "Y-yeah, we...could do that."

Garnet smiled lightly. "Excellent. You two can go; I'll handle it from here."

"Alright, we'll be back soon." Pearl said.

Pearl and Amethyst stepped onto the warp pad as Amethyst affectionately waved goodbye. "Bye Garnet, go easy on Onyx okay?"

Pearl punched Amethyst in the shoulder lightly for her teasing.

"Ow." Amethyst complained.

Soon enough the two gems warped away, leaving them in an awkward silence. Garnet turned around and crossed her arms at Onyx.

"Let's go." She said

Onyx was still quite nervous. "R-right now?"

"No time like the present."

Garnet walked over to the temple door and Onyx followed her, the temple had several rooms for each gem and one of them was a training ring. Garnet put her hand over the door and a red gem shone through and the door opened to reveal a simple dirt training space.

The two gems stepped inside; Onyx went to one end of the ring and Garnet to the other. It was clear that Garnet wasn't messing around when she summoned the gauntlets onto her hands.

"Now when I come at you I want you to summon your crystal weapon and fight back, okay?"

Her weapon? She couldn't remember any of her past, how was she supposed to remember what weapon she wielded?

She didn't have long to think though as Garnet dashed towards her at a frightening pace, Onyx was so scared she couldn't think straight and Garnet hit her, causing her to fly across the arena.

She was down, but she wasn't super hurt; she suspected that Garnet was holding back, because she knew what it felt like when she wasn't and the difference was quite obvious.

"Come on!" Garnet said. "Attack me!"

Onyx groaned as she got up. "I can't, can you give one second to collect myself?"

Garnet didn't pay her any mind and moved in for another attack, this time Onyx was quick enough to duck to the side and dodge. Honestly, she was starting to get upset that Garnet wasn't giving her a chance to breathe.

"I said-"

Garnet moved in for another punch and Onyx dodged again.

"Give me one second!"

"No!"

Garnet kicked Onyx and sent her back a few feet, but she kept on her feet.

"You're not gonna get a time out in combat."

Garnet jumped up into the air and prepared to come down on the girl.

"Give me everything you've got or you're going to lose!"

"FINE!" Onyx screamed.

Her gem began to glow brightly and then Garnet came down on her hard, displacing the air around them and creating a dust cloud.

When the dust cleared Onyx saw that she had blocked Garnet's attack with her very own weapon, it was a large black scythe with a long blade and shaft; the head of the scythe was jagged and allowed her to attack from both sides. This weapon looked…right, in her hands.

(Imagine like this, but black: art/Emerald-Scythe-125352483)

This made Garnet grin. "A scythe? Exotic."

She back flipped and put some distance between the two before getting back into a fighting stance. "Now that you have your weapon…" She waved her hands forward. "Come at me."

With renewed vigor Onyx charged at her and prepared to cleave her, Garnet blocked the blade with her massive gloves and then grabbed onto the pole of it. She tried to rip it from Onyx's hands but she wouldn't let her.

Onyx leapt into the air and over Garnet's head, then using her newfound momentum and turning Garnet's strength against her she flung the woman into midair. Then she rose up herself to meet her, as she came close she saw Garnet crack a small smile.

"Very good!" She tried to punch Onyx but she blocked it again. "Never let your opponent take away your weapon, treat your weapon like and extension of yourself."

The two clashed in midair, the blades of the scythe crashed against Garnet's fists, neither giving in to the other as the two warriors fell to the ground.

Onyx tried to slash Garnet across the body, but she got in too close; Garnet grabbed the pole and pulled Onyx in, getting close enough for Garnet to slam her in the face with her elbow and then push her towards the ground so that when they landed Onyx felt the brunt of the force.

Garnet was on top of Onyx now, she had her giant gauntlet over her hand and she looked like she was ready to crush her skull. Onyx tried to reach for her weapon, but it was just out of her grasp.

Just as she feared for her life, Garnet un-summoned her gauntlets. "I think we're done for the day."

Garnet got up off her and started walking towards the door. "You did well today."

Onyx got up and looked at Garnet with shock. "Wait a minute…you're telling me I did well? I could barely touch you and you had me pinned in less than 10 minutes."

Garnet stopped walking. "I am an excellent fighter; I've been training for nearly my whole life. I wouldn't expect someone with barely any memory of who they are to have that same sort of battle experience."

"I…but…" She sighed. "Fair enough."

The two walked out of the training room together, tired but enlightened.

"I'm glad that I helped you get over your fear of me."

Saying that made Onyx confused, she looked at Garnet for a moment…really just curious on how she could have known and Garnet replied with a small smile.,

"You think I didn't know? You interact well enough with the others but when I come in the room you always look away, or try to get further from me."

Onyx looked at the ground, dejected. She knew she should get these images out of her head but…she can't, fear is not easy to overcome.

Garnet put a hand on Onyx's shoulder and looked into her eyes. "If there's anything wrong, you can tell me."

"It's…complicated."

Garnet nodded. "Alright, but I'll always be here for you if you need me."

Garnet walked back towards the door and it opened, leading to what looked like her room. Alone, Onyx sat down on the couch, looking herself over and thinking about herself.

"_What has happened to me? Why are all my memories locked away? Why would Garnet want to kill me if she seems to be my friend?"_

There were too many questions and not enough answers; it sent the gems mind spinning. But then, she looked down at her gem, she put her hand to it and felt it glow and grow warm as her new Onyx Scythe materialized. She gave a once over of this weapon and she had a different thought.

"_Focus on the now…perhaps there was more truth to Amethyst's statement than I thought."_

Onyx got up and stood in the middle of the room; she took her scythe in both hands and began practicing with it. If she was going to fight evil monsters, she may as well be prepared for it.

**Man this is difficult. I'm not the best when it comes to pacing as I like keeping my viewers interested in what's going on, so having a character with amnesia isn't the best for me because I can't reveal everything at once. It's even more difficult to do when I basically know everything about her, but I can't share it with you guys because that would result in a huge exposition dump which would bore you guys.**

**Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next time we'll get to see Onyx go on a real mission with the gems; should be a lot of fun. **


	3. Cheeseburger backpack

Onyx was sitting in the living room reading a book that she found in Steven's drawer, the cover looked interesting so she decided to give it a try.

So far, the book appeared to be about a girl who goes to school sometimes, but other times she puts on a sailor suit and becomes a guardian of earth. She could see why he would like something like this.

As she was reading, the warp pad whirred to life and Garnet came in covered in feathers, Pearl had a statue in her hands, and Amethyst came in carrying a giant egg with stars on it. Interested in what they were doing she put down the book and walked towards them.

"Hey guys." She greeted.

"Onyx, good to see you. Can you please get the door for me, this thing is really heavy." Amethyst asks.

Eager to help she rushes over to the fridge and opens it, despite her suspicion that this isn't going to fit in the fridge.

Around this time Steven rushes in the room with a package in his hands, he looks in confusion at what's going on.

"Hello Steven." Garnet greeted.

"Amethyst, we do not need that. It's not going to fit in the fridge."

Amethyst gave Pearl a challenging stare. "What? I got this."

Amethyst pulled out one of the trays in the fridge, causing milk and bagels to fall to the ground, and then she shoved the egg inside.

"Hey, it fits!" She slammed the door shut and seemed very satisfied with herself. "This is great! We could make a big omelet, or a big keesh, or a-"

Amethyst continued rattling off things and Pearl decided to clarify what had happened.

"We fought a giant bird."

"Oh." Onyx said in realization. "That explains why Garnet was covered in feathers."

"Yes."

"Well, I've got something to show you guys!" Steven said excitedly.

Pearl sighed. "Sorry Steven, we're only here for a moment, we have to go back out there."

He seemed upset. "What? Why?"

Pearl showed him the statue she held in her hand. "We have to return this moon goddess statue to the top of the lunar sea spire before midnight, without it the whole temple will fall apart."

Pearl started to get nostalgic, she showed Steven a picture of the old spire using some kind of hologram ability; she said that the spire was a haven for the gems that were on Earth, but it's been abandoned for a very long time.

"We're going to save it with this statue."

"Oh, well then you're definitely going to want to see what I've got." Steven added excitedly.

Pearl groaned. "Steven, we really don't have time to-"

"Let him speak." Onyx interrupted. "He's been sitting outside all morning waiting for something to arrive, if he's this excited about it then it must be important."

"It is!"

Steven reached into the package he had gotten and pulled out a backpack…shaped like a cheeseburger!

The rest of the gems looked at him curiously. "A…hamburger?"

"It a novelty cheeseburger backpack, I was thinking I could use it to carry around the statue for you."

Pearl smiled at the small boy. "Steven, that's sweet, but this is serious gem business."

"Hey!" He pulled up his shirt and showed his gem. "I'm a gem too!"

"But you still have a lot to learn." Pearl added.

Amethyst decided to butt in. "So let him come, it'll be…educational." Amethyst almost gagged saying that word.

Onyx raised her arm. "I'd also like to come along, it'd give me a chance to see what your missions are like and prove myself."

Pearl was a bit hesitant about bringing this many people with them. "I-I don't know…"

"Plus, I'll keep my eye on Steven at all times."

That seemed to clinch it, Pearl nodded. "Okay then, let's go." She handed the statue to Steven. "You can carry the statue in your hamburger."

Excitedly, he opened up the bag and examined it.

"Guys, this thing is full of pockets! Even the cheese is a pocket! I can pack a lot more stuff in here." He zipped up the bag and put it on his back. "I'm gonna get some extra supplies, I'll be right back."

Steven ran upstairs to get more stuff, and the rest of the gems stood on the platform ready to go.

"I'm still not sure about this." Pearl said.

"The greatest teacher is experience." Garnet added.

"I know, I know, but Steven can be so…immature sometimes."

Onyx nodded. "He is a child, they are all like that. I was when I was his age and I'm sure you were as well."

"But…what if he gets hurt?"

Amethyst guffawed at that idea. "Come on, he's got four gem guardians to protect him. What could go wrong?"

It seemed like Pearl was getting nervous over nothing. "Well, I…" Pearl groaned. "Steven, come on! We don't have a lot of time."

Steven came rushing down the stairs, with his backpack in tow.

"Geez, did you pack your whole room in there?" Pearl added.

Steven stepped on the warp pad and the crew warped, they were inside the subspace funnel and traveling at great speeds. It was so great, and because of the lack of gravity, that Steven began to float in the air.

Soon enough they made it to the other side and Steven was sent back to the ground.

"Whoa." He said.

And he was right, despite being abandoned for a long time Onyx thought it still looked quite beautiful.

Although, when the gems looked at it they seemed sad.

"It wasn't this bad 100 years ago." Pearl pointed out.

"I'm sensing some structural instability." Garnet added.

"Yeah…I suppose being abandoned for a century would do that." Onyx added.

The site was so unstable that the ground that Steven was standing on began to crack.

"Steven!" Pearl shouted.

They boy didn't notice what was happening underneath his feet, however, and stood there obliviously. Before Pearl had a chance to react Onyx dashed towards Steven and picked him up only a second before the ground underneath him crumbled and would have sent him falling down dozens of feet.

Onyx grabbed Steven's shoulders. "Careful Steven, always mind your surroundings."

Steven nodded. "Okay."

Pearl sighed. "I knew this was a mistake, we're taking Steven back."

"No way, we just got here." Amethyst said.

Onyx nodded "Besides, I said I'd protect him and I have. What's the problem?"

Pearl walked up to Steven and crouched down to his level. "Steven, this is a part of your history and I want you to experience it, but you have to take this seriously. Can you do that?"

Steven gave a thumbs up. "You got it!"

"Excellent!" Onyx exclaimed.

"Enough." Garnet interrupted. "We have to move now."

The group walked up the cliff that led to the spire; they made it to the peak until they were stopped by Garnet.

"What's the holdup?" Amethyst asked. She looked at the distance between the spire and the cliff. "That's not too far, we can jump it."

Garnet shook her head. "No, the magic above the whirlpool will drag us down. Look-"

She picked up a large rock as an example and threw it towards the spire, once it got above the whirlpool it fell down towards the depths.

"So we can't jump?" Pearl asked.

"Oh! I know what to do!"

Steven reached into his bag and pulled out two sweaters. He tied their sleeves together.

"What are those?" Amethyst asked.

"They were for keeping warm, but check this out."

Steven through the sweaters like a lasso, hooked onto a piece of the rubble and swung himself over across the pit. The gravity dragged him down, but he held onto his lifeline tightly and pulled himself up, making it to the other side.

There were mixed reaction from the other gems: Pearl seemed horrified, Garnet seemed shocked, Onyx was impressed and Amethyst...

"Alright Steven! Nice job."

Amethyst seemed pretty happy about it.

"Come on guys, let's go join him!"

Amethyst seemed ready to cross but Onyx raised her hand. "Ah, allow me."

She walked to the edge of the cliff and put her hand over her gem, it began to glow brightly and soon that glow enveloped her hand. Onyx slammed her hand on the edge of the cliff and it spawned onyx crystals that stretched to the other side and attached itself to the wall of the spire, creating a crystal bridge of sorts.

That surprised Pearl even more. "You can…make crystal?"

Onyx nodded. "I've done it on a smaller scale before; this was a test to see if it would work for something larger."

She carefully stepped on the bridge to test how tough it was; it seemed to hold her weight.

"It seems stable, let's go."

The gems crossed across the bridge, it held steady but has the past over the pit gravity seemed to increase and they could feel themselves being pulled down. It was hard to keep their balance.

"_If this is hard for us, how did Steven manage to climb up?"_ Onyx wondered. _"Perhaps he is stronger than they believe."_

They made it to the other side, and the minute they were safe Pearl looked at Steven with worry.

"Don't ever do that again! But…it was pretty great." Pearl admitted.

Onyx wondered why Pearl was being so protective of Steven; they all seem to technically be his guardian so…why is she worried more than most?

They continued walking inside the sea spire; its beauty continued however the damage was much more evident inside than out.

"Ugh, this is so much worse inside. It's just…ugh!" Pearl said, disgusted with the current state of the spire.

As they ascended the spire Pearl kept going on and on about how bad it looked, honestly it was getting on Onyx's nerves.

They stopped in front of a beautiful statue. "Oh Steven, once we fix the temple you'll be able to see the temple in all its-AH!"

Onyx turned around quickly to see what made Pearl so scared, but all she saw was her slashing a statue in half with her spear.

"What were those goobers?' Steven asked.

"Crystal shrimp." Pearl replied.

"You guys! We've got a problem!" Amethyst pointed out.

The group walked up to the top of the crystal staircase and saw what the problem was, there were tons of crystal shrimp all over the floor, and you couldn't move a foot without finding one.

"It's an infestation! And they're blocking the only way up to the spire." Pearl pointed out.

"Well…can't we just squish them?"

Steven tried to squish them but Pearl pulled him back immediately. "Don't touch those! Their shells are deadly."

Pearl walked forward and observed the situation. "We need to clear a path."

"Easy." Onyx stepped forward and pulled out her scythe. "I'll carve us a path, I won't touch the shrimp and we can pass by."

Pearl stopped her from doing that. "Wait! If you attack one the others will try to attack you and there's no way you could beat them all, no we need some way to-"

"Bagel sandwich!" Steven cried out.

He threw two bagels to the sides of the platform, the crystal shrimp huddled around those areas and it created a path for them.

"Brilliant!" Garnet complimented.

"Oh hey, what do you know?"

Once again, both Onyx and Pearl admired Steven's skill at dealing with a situation.

"How did you know that would work?" Pearl asked.

"Well…if I was a shrimp, that's what I would do." Steven said simply.

Onyx nodded. "Nothing motivates an animal like food."

The rest of the group began walking onward and Pearl tried to get everyone's attention.

"I just want everyone to know…my plan would have worked to."

Onyx smiled. "Of course it would have Pearl." She tussled Steve's hair a bit with her advanced height. "But Steven's way was faster and easier."

Now they came to a deep pit in the path. It wasn't too big, should be easy to cross-

"Watch out!" Garnet warned.

Suddenly the wall gave in and a ton of water rushed in. Because, of course, nothing can be simple.

"What are we gonna do?" Amethyst asked.

Then everyone seemed to turn their attention to Steven.

"What?" He asked cluelessly.

Onyx spoke up. "Steven, so far your backpack has had everything we've needed. That's either very lucky or you're very good at packing. So…we'd like to see if you have what we need again."

Amethyst joined in. "Yeah come on! Cheeseburger backpack! Cheeseburger backpack! Pearl, Onyx, chant with me."

Soon, three of them were chanting for Steven as he reached into his backpack and pulled out…

"A raft!" He proclaimed.

"Steven, that's so sensible!" Pearl complimented.

He threw it into the water, but the current was too strong and it got carried away and went down a waterfall.

"Aww, now how are we gonna get across?" Amethyst asked.

While they weren't looking Garnet kicked over a large pillar, which she used as a bridge to get across.

"Nice idea anyway Steven." Garnet said, trying to make him feel better.

"Yeah, they can't all be winners." Amethyst added.

Finally they had made it to the top of the spire, who's beauty far exceeded the rest of the temple. The water went on for miles and the light of the stars reflected on the water perfectly.

"It's now or never, Steven hand me the statue." Pearl said.

Steven reached into his backpack and looked around for the statue, then he…got nervous, he continued looking but…

"I don't have it!" He said, worried.

"What?" Everyone said in shock.

"I must have left it on the bed when I was re-packing."

Shocked, they all looked at up at the moon to gauge how much time they had left.

"There's…no time." Pearl said sadly.

It seemed like all was lost, but Steven wasn't about to give up.

"Wait…I have an idea!" He pulled out a doll of some sorts.

"Could…that work?" Amethyst asked.

Everyone seemed to not know if it would work, but there was no time to guess. Steven placed the statue on the pedestal and the moonlight beamed down on top of it.

At first t seemed like it was going to work, but…in midair the doll exploded and the ceremony stopped. The whole tower began to shake fiercely and the water level around them began rising.

"What's happening?" Steven asked.

"The magic sustaining the temple is too unstable, it's collapsing in on itself." Garnet said.

Soon, the ground they were standing on began to crack and one by one they all fell into the deep ocean. Onyx fell in and the impact of hitting the water shocked her so she sunk a little bit but she recovered soon enough, swimming to the surface with the rest of the group.

"This is all my fault, I broke it!" Steven said, clearly sorry for what he had done.

Pearl tried to calm him down. "No Steven, the spire was falling apart when we got here, it isn't like you…broke the whole thing."

Onyx spoke up as well. "Besides, you did well under pressure. I can say without a doubt that your backpack came in handy."

"Yeah, two of your four ideas worked. That's like…50%" Amethyst said.

"Yeah…I guess you're right." Steven said, feeling slightly better.

Suddenly, something bubbled out of the water and rose up to the surface. When it appeared it turned out to be the raft Steven pulled out before.

"Woo!" He cheered, glad they didn't have to swim all the way back.

Everyone seated themselves on the (admittedly tiny) raft and cheered for Steven's idea.

"Cheeseburger backpack! Cheeseburger backpack! Cheeseburge-"

"It's a three hour paddle home." Garnet said, killing the mood.

Onyx sighed. "Well then, we'd better get started."

She put her hand to her gem and as it glowed she managed to pull out four oars made of her crystal. She handed them to each of the gems one at a time.

"Paddle for you, paddle for you, paddle for you, and paddle for you."

Steven took the paddle and looked at Onyx curiously. "Aren't you going to paddle to?"

Onyx shook her head. "No, I have a different idea."

She climbed out of the raft and grabbed on to the back of it. "I'll kick us forward and you guys use the oars and we should get there faster."

"Wait!" Steven said. He reached into his bag and pulled her out some food. "It's a bit soggy, but you're gonna need your energy if you're going to be kicking for so long."

Onyx took the bagel from Steven and bit into it, it was squishy but not undesirable. Once she took all she wanted she handed the rest back to him.

"Thanks Steven, now let's paddle."

And so began a long journey back to shore, everyone stayed silent as they paddled for hours on end but no one really complained about it…at least not vocally.

Onyx thought she heard Amethyst complaining at one point but when she called her out on it she said she hadn't said a word all trip, but she might have been thinking it.

Strange.

**Wow, what a random way to end the chapter. Honestly, I couldn't think of anything cool to do so I kind of just put it there to take up space, it has no real purpose to the story.**

…**OR DOES IT?**


	4. The darkness consumes

**Sorry guys, this took a bit longer than I expected. Partially because I wanted to get the emotional scenes right, partially because I didn't write as fast as I normally do, and also because of Steven week this week….IT WAS FREAKING AMAZING! So that made me rethink some of my future plans for this story and I had to take a day to get over the epicness of it all and stop fanboying.**

**But I'm here now, and I bring you…character development!**

Onyx was sitting in the middle of the floor with her legs crossed meditating…at least, that's what she told herself she was doing.

She could not sleep; for the past week she would have the same recurring dream, she would see the people in the distance, she would run towards them, but no matter how hard or long she tried she could never reach them. The constant feeling of loneliness it created made her depressed so she decided to hone her mind and make it sharper; perhaps this would help it pass.

Her silent vigil was interrupted as she felt something approaching her, Onyx opened her eyes and jumped to her feet and stared at the door to the temple. Within a second the temple's large stone door opened and all the crystal gems stepped through with determined look on their faces (save for Steven, who she knew was still asleep).

"Onyx we need… oh, I see you're already ready." Pearl said.

"I thought I heard you coming, what's the issue?"

"We're all going out on missions." Garnet explained. "I'm going to get a dangerous possession beast, Amethyst is headed for a rocky cliff side to get the earthen opal, and Pearl is headed for the prismatic jungle to make sure all the creatures are in control."

"And what's my job?"

The gems looked at each other nervously, but their looks hardened fairly quickly.

"We need you to get the shadow pearl." Garnet said.

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It is." Pearl spoke up. She used the gem in her head to project an image of a forest. "Over time one of the gems became corrupted, it attached itself to a tree in this swamp and the raw power it exudes creates a fog around it that deters most people from entering."

"Well then, why am I going in instead of one of you guys?" She asked, curious why she was given a seemingly rough task.

"We've been observing the area for some time and we've noticed that around dawn is when the fog is at its thinnest."

Onyx looked out the window, the sun was just beginning to rise and it decorated the water with a beautiful bright orange color.

"We'd like you to head into the swamp and retrieve the pearl from the tree. Just get it here quickly; the longer you stay in the fog the harder it will be to resist its effects."

Onyx nodded. "I'll do my best."

She walked to the warp pad and prepared herself for the trip.

"The warp pad should bring you right outside the swamp; remember to move quickly because we don't have a lot of time before the fog thickens. Get going!"

Onyx gave a salute. "Yes ma'am, I won't let you down."

The warp pad whirred to life and Onyx was beamed up and out into the world.

"Why did she salute me?" Pearl asked curiously.

Amethyst just shrugged and gave an 'mph' noise.

**Black Forest…**

Onyx was beamed on to the war pad outside the jungle, the sun was still high up which meant it was early, but as Onyx gazed into the forest it only seemed to grow darker and darker the further it went.

"Foreboding…wonderful." Onyx said to herself, sarcastically.

As bad as it seemed from the outside Onyx knew she couldn't delay any longer so she walked forward and made her way into the forest.

It was just as lifeless on the inside as it seemed on the outside, and just as she suspected, it continually got darker as she went along. On her way through the forest she could hear a low growl from one of the bushes….perhaps it wasn't as lifeless as she thought.

Suddenly, a crocodile jumped out of the brush and clenched Onyx's leg in its jaw.

It hurt, but Onyx wasn't shocked for more than a moment. "Get off me you filthy beast!"

She used her other leg to kick the creature in the face which got it off her leg, but then it growled at her, signifying that it was not done. It crawled towards her quickly but this time Onyx jumped into the air and came down with all her weight on the creatures back. That knocked the beast right out and Onyx brushed her hands off, proud of her work.

"Not even worth my time."

She continued her trek through the swamp and as she kept going she felt the air become…stagnant; the wind seemed to stop blowing and there was a certain dryness in the air. Further along the path she saw the fog begin to seep up from the ground and rise at a slow but steady rate.

"This must be the fog they were warning me about. I don't get what's so dangerous about it, I don't feel any different."

But something was distracting Onyx, she could faintly hear a voice on the wind. It was calling her name.

"_Onyx…"_

She turned her head, trying to find out where the voice was coming from. Then something appeared in front of her, it was a blinding light that made her have to turn away because it was so close. Once her eyes had begun to adjust to this new bright light she took a good look at it and…

This…this was the image from her dream, the blinding light at the end of the long dark way but now she could see what was at the end of it. There were gems…at least a dozen different gems of all different sizes and colors.

They were what she was seeing in her mind, images of the rest of her race. She walked up to one of them, she was about a foot shorter than Onyx and she had a light green color, she outstretched her hand and Onyx held onto it tightly. This is what she was missing, this feeling of companionship and comfort from the rest of her kind; it was like their happiness was making her happy.

But this wasn't mean to last, the light slowly faded and the area got dark again; all the gems began to notice and looked around in fear and confusion.

Out of the shadows three formless figures emerged, they were encased in shadows and had glowing red eyes. They flew towards the large group of gems and started passing through their bodies like they were spirits; however, as they passed through the gems began to grow dimmer, their bodies began to crack and soon enough they disintegrated.

This display shocked and appalled Onyx but she could do nothing to stop it, she wasn't fast enough to keep up with the shadows and she could do nothing to stop the others from disintegrating. Pretty soon she was by herself again; she fell to her knees as the dark feeling was back in her heart, only this time it was magnified at least tenfold.

Soon enough the shadows came for her, but they didn't just destroy her like the others. They stopped in front of her, and then their bodies began to grow and take a shape. They became taller and fuller bodied until they finally had a true shape… a truly horrible shape.

"No…" Onyx said to herself.

They were the forms of her friends; their shapes and their weapons were the only distinguishable features about them, their bodies were still a shadowy broken black with soul piercing red eyes.

Shadow Pearl was the first to strike by coming down on Onyx with her spear, Onyx rolled out of the way of the attack. Now Shadow Garnet charged at her so Onyx summoned her scythe to block it.

Onyx back flipped to get some distance between them and think out her next move. But these shadows were relentless; Shadow Amethyst condensed herself into some kind of ball and actually rolled herself at Onyx, Onyx countered her attack with a low swing from her scythe which knocked Amethyst off her balance but didn't do her any damage.

"What's wrong with you guys? Why are you doing this?" Onyx asked, stressed and curious why all this was happening.

Now they began to all attack in a group, Onyx slashed her scythe in wide arks just to keep their blows from connecting. She found herself being backed up further and further into a corner, and she wasn't happy about it.

Shadow Amethyst used her whip to grab onto her scythe and try to pull her closer, but Onyx used a burst of strength to pull Amethyst towards her and then head-butt her to the ground.

"Why do you treat me like a friend now and yet later you want to kill me?" She said, slowly growing in anger.

Shadow pearl threw her spear at Onyx like a javelin, which she avoided, and then summoned another one to try and do battle with her. Onyx lowered her scythe so that the edge was dragging on the ground, then when Pearl came close she used a rising slash which created a huge gash in Pearl's chest that caused her to fall to the ground.

Onyx was now entering full on bloodlust mode. "You want me to be your enemy? Well guess what…you've got me, and all my anger to go with it!"

All that was left was Garnet, Onyx gave her a cold steely glare and then they both charged for each other at the same time. Onyx would have repeated her execution technique but Garnet jumped up into the air and tried to hit her from above, Onyx blacked and then when Garnet landed on the ground Onyx prepared one giant cleaving slice to end her all at once…she was going to chop Garnet in half.

The cut was fast, precise, and powerful, but it wasn't Garnet that Onyx cut in half. In that spit second the area around her seemed disappeared and she was back in the swamp; as it turns out what she did cut in half was a large tree, it came crashing down to the ground and out of it fell a large black stone.

Onyx had a moment of realization. "That's the black pearl the girls mentioned."

She reached down to try and pick up the stone, but the minute she put it in her arms the shadow realm appeared again. Everything felt dark and depressing, the very air around her felt like it was trying to choke her, and the shadows…now they were everywhere she could feel hundreds of eyes upon her and it filled her with such dread.

She had no more courage to fight, she only ran. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her while trying to hold back the psychological pain she was facing, soon enough she reached the warp pad and teleported back to the house.

When she arrived, everything inside seemed happy and warm.

"Onyx you're back!" Steven said excitedly. "You want some together…breakfast?"

Onyx felt emotionally exhausted, barely able of standing. She fell to the ground and the black pearl tumbled to the ground with her.

"Onyx!" Pearl exclaimed. "What's wrong?"

"Get back! She got the black pearl."

"She…did it?" Amethyst asked.

Garnet took the pearl in her hands, then she cast a protective bubble around it and sent it flying off.

Seeing this made Pearl excited. "Onyx, you did it! You…Onyx?"

It took a second to notice but they could hear Onyx…silently weeping. As she started to get up from the floor and back up onto her feet they could see tears in her eyes. Pearl tried to reach out to comfort her, but Onyx put her hands on her shoulders in a slightly forceful tone.

"They're all gone." She said in a sad hysteric way.

"What?"

"The gems, they're all gone."

"What? No, they…"

"I could hear them, they were crying out in pain! My brothers and sisters are all gone!"

"Onyx you need to slow down, we want to help you…"

Pearl tried to reach for the woman, but Onyx pushed her away.

"No! Leave me alone!"

Suddenly something unexpected happened, one of the gems on the star of the temple's door began to form; the gem was a dark black but glowed brightly regardless. The door parted and a new room had been revealed.

"I…need to be alone."

Onyx rushed forward into this new room before anyone even had a chance to say something about it and the door closed behind her. When she stepped inside it seemed dark, but then there was a dot of light, and then another, and then hundreds of thousands of lights lit up the room. On further observation it looked like she was standing in the middle of space, it seemed to starch on for miles without any end in sight; it was…peaceful.

Feeling no immediate danger Onyx sat on the (non-existent) ground and curled herself up, and then she cried for a time until she felt better.

**And there's the first cliffhanger. How does that make you feel?**


	5. Exploring new possibilities

Garnet and Amethyst were playing cards on the living room table; Garnet was winning because of her superior game playing skills…and because Amethyst had no idea how to play.

While they were playing the door to the temple opened up and Onyx stepped out, she kept her feet together and her arms at her side and her expression was neutral. Regardless of their friends lack of emotion, the gems were excited to see her.

"Onyx, you're up." Garnet said, without looking away from her game.

"Yeah, we were getting worried about you. We haven't seen you in…like two days."

Onyx sighs. "I'm sorry, I was having an emotional breakdown and I didn't think you guys would want to put up with that."

Garnet put down her cards and stood up, looking Onyx dead in the eyes. "That's not true. We're part of a team now, and as a team you should know you can come to us with any problems you have and we'll try to help you though it."

That seemed to raise up Onyx's spirits a little more. "Really?"

She nodded. "Of course, now do you want to explain why you had a breakdown?"

Onyx's eyes went to the ground in embarrassment. "Well…I have some questions that need answering and there are some things I want to ask you guys."

"Alright then."

Garnet walked towards Onyx and away from the table.

"Yeah, good luck in there." Amethyst said.

"You're coming with me."

"What! Why?" Amethyst complained.

"Because you need to hear this to."

Begrudgingly Amethyst put her cards down and walked towards Garnet and Onyx.

"We should talk in private." Onyx added.

She turned to face the door and used her gem to open the door. The three gems walked inside what would now be Onyx's room, as they walked the ground made a clanking sound as if it were made of glass or crystal; the room itself was an uninteresting gray with a barren bed in the middle of the room that had a bookcase and lamp on one side of it and a table with an incense burner on the other.

"It's…homey." Amethyst said, trying to find something nice to say about the room.

"Oh that's not the best part."

Onyx pointed up and she revealed the most outstanding feature of the room: a glass dome that showed a vast expanse of stars and galaxies that seemed to stretch on for light years. Amethyst and Garnet were in awe of the sight, but Garnet also recognized something about it.

"This is the comet observatory." Garnet realized. "We used to have this room in the temple but then it just got…lost."

"How do you lose a whole room?" Onyx asked.

"The temple has a mind and heart of its own; it's a living thing and only reveals itself to gems if it trusts them and if they're meant to be there."

"So…you think this room was made for me?"

"Possibly." Garnet walked towards Onyx's bed and sat down on the edge, she patted the sides, inviting Onyx to sit next to her and so she did. Amethyst sat on the other side of Garnet and now they were all siting on the bed.

"Now, from the start, tell us what happened." Garnet asked, in a very calm and peaceful tone.

Onyx sighed and then began her tale; she told of them of how she entered the forest, of how the fog surrounded her, about her visions of gems from a home that she forgot, and how they were destroyed in front of her by shadowy versions of her friends.

It was a lot to take in but Garnet listened attentively and when it was all over she looked to the ground and thought. After a minute or two she only had one thing to say.

"I was afraid this might happen."

Onyx was confused. "What do you mean?"

"We've tried to get at that gem before, but we couldn't because of the fog. Either the images it created were so vivid we got lost in them, or the fear they created unnerved us to the point where we retreated; which is why we haven't gotten the pearl up until now."

Onyx sighed. "So is that why you sent me in? You thought that because I was blank slate there wasn't anything the fog could use against me?"

Garnet put a hand on Onyx's shoulder. "No, we sent you in because we had faith in you. We thought you were confident enough, strong enough, and brave enough to overcome the challenges. You proved us right by doing something not a single one of us could, not even me."

Amethyst chuckled, trying to break up the seriousness of the talk. "You did great! I don't know about miss tall dark and serious over here but I think you're a true crystal gem."

All of these compliments and positive emotions overwhelmed Onyx, she reached out and pulled both Garnet and Amethyst into a big hug and held onto them tightly.

"Thank you, both of you."

Soon enough they two pulled away and Onyx got up off the bed, ready to go back out there and face the world.

"Hey Onyx." Amethyst interrupted.

"Yeah?"

"Um, about that vision you had, um…"

"What about it?"

"Well…from the sound of it, it sounds like you miss other gems."

Onyx thought about it. "I…I guess I do. I mean leaving all your friends and family and being cast unto a foreign planet would make you miss your old friends."

"Exactly, so why don't you go out and make new friends?"

"I thought Pearl said you guys were the only gems left on Earth."

Amethyst shook her head. "No, I meant make friends with the humans."

"Oh…" Onyx was unsure about this. "I don't know, I've barely stepped out of the house since I came here. Do you think I'm ready?"

Amethyst scoffed. "Yeah! We hang out in town all the time and no one looks at us weird. Go outside, make some friends, you'll feel much better."

Onyx nodded, her grin slowly growing. "Okay! I'm gonna go meet people."

She ran towards the door and straight out of it, hurrying towards the front door of the house.

Amethyst and Garnet still sat on the bed.

"You didn't tell her." Garnet said simply.

Amethyst sighed. "Would you want to tell her her new friends are responsible for killing hundreds of members of their own race?"

"No…but it would be the right thing to do."

"We can tell her later, she'll be fine."

"I hope you're right."

**Beach city…**

Onyx was a lot less confident now than when she had left the house. All the energy she had when she ran outside dissipated into nervousness; the people looked strange, she felt out of place, and they all kept looking at her with strange looks in their eyes.

"_Okay Onyx, just calm down. You said you were going to make new friends so that's exactly what you're going to do. Just ignore all the people…looking at you…judging you…probably thinking you're some kind of freak."_

Onyx walked quicker now, she just wanted to get away from a large group and be at peace. She looked up and saw a giant…round dough wheel, she's seen Steven eat them sometimes, they're called "Donuts"

Seeing that the giant donut was attached to a building she walked over to it, walked inside the door, and slammed it shut. She exhaled; glad that she could be away from people for just a little bit.

"Um…can we help you?"

The new voices made Onyx turn around in surprise, she saw two humans behind the counter looking at her curiously. One was a woman with bleach blonde hair who was just as tall as Steven and the other one was a tall orange haired boy with large circles in his ear. Curious.

Summoning all her courage Onyx stepped forward and gave them a small wave. "Hello."

"Hi…" The woman said awkwardly.

"Are you gonna by something or just stand there all day?" The boy said insensitively. Onyx was starting not to like him.

The woman punched him in the shoulder. "Lars, be nice."

Onyx forced herself to smile and walked towards the two. "He is right though, I did not intend on buying food from you."

"Then what do you want?"

"You are friends of Steven, correct?"

They looked at each other.

"Sure." The woman answered.

"Friend is a…strong word for it." Lars said, uninterested.

"Well…I am new to this place and if you are friends of Steven maybe…we can also be friends?"

They looked at her surprisingly for a second, but their looks softened.

"I mean…sure." The woman reached out her hand. "I'm Sadie and this is my friend Lars."

Onyx grabbed her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you Sadie and friend Lars."

Lars scoffed. "Pft, whatever." He moved from behind the counter and walked to the front of the store. "I'm gonna go out for some food. I'll be back later."

"Lars wait-"

He didn't listen and walked out anyway.

"He seems rude." Onyx commented honestly.

"Yeah…but he's a nice guy, trust me." Sadie said, trying to make up for his behavior.

"I'll take your word for it."

Sadie took out a rag and started wiping down the counter, the air in the room had become…awkward and the two females didn't know how to proceed.

"So…you're one of Steven's gem friends?"

Onyx seemed surprised. "How did you guess that I was a gem?"

"Well, not to be too blunt about it, but you have a giant gem imbedded in your chest."

Onyx looked down at her exposed gem. "Fair point."

"Plus your skin is a weird color and your social skills need some work."

Onyx laughed at that comment. "True, true."

Sadie looked up at Onyx with a sort of…glint in her eyes, maybe she was starting to like this gem.

"Tell you what, I'll give you a donut to give to Steven and maybe I'll throw in an extra for you."

"That sounds nice, thank you…" Onyx gasped. "But I don't have any currency."

"Don't worry, Steven can pay me the next time he sees me."

Onyx smiled at the small girl's generosity. She was silently waiting for her donuts and then…

She felt something in her chest, something rising up like nausea or fear. It moved down to her stomach and she clenched at the feeling to make it go away.

"What's wrong?" Sadie asked.

"Nothing, just…uncomfortable."

Sadie put the bag on the counter. "Well…here's your donuts. Tell Steven I said hi, okay?"

"Sure thing."

Onyx took the bag and started walking towards the door. Suddenly, she heard a beeping sound and Sadie pulled out a "phone" Steven had one of those to, he said people used them to communicate.

"Oh my gosh!" Sadie exclaimed.

Onyx turned around. "What's up?"

"I just got a text from Lars; he said there's some seriously weird stuff going down at the fry stand. He sent me a picture."

Sadie turned the phone to Onyx and she saw a cup of fried potato sticks with eyes and a red apron, it was grabbing people and seemed to be force feeding them food.

"I have to go." Onyx said.

She rushed out of the donut shop and started running, she ran into town and towards the ocean.

As she got closer that feeling in her stomach returned and it seemed to grow and grow the closer she got. Then all of a sudden it vanished, but was replaced by the site of that monster attacking people.

She could see Steven in the crowd, standing their confused and afraid; the monster moved towards him and tried to reach out and grab him with its elongated arms. But Onyx wouldn't let it get him, she rushed forward and grabbed Steven out of its grasp. The two ducked behind a table to hide from the monster.

"Onyx! You're back!" Steven said excitedly.

"No time for formalities Steven, what's going on here?" Onyx asked, to the point.

"The suit's been infected by a gem." Pearl said.

Onyx looked to her side and saw Pearl lying next to them covered in some red substance.

"Pearl, when did you get here? And why aren't you fighting this thing?" She asked.

"That…thing covered me in ketchup. It got in my eyes, I can't see."

Onyx stood up and raised her fist. "Well then, I guess it's up to me." She handed the bag of donuts to Steven. "Hold these for me Steven."

"What are they?"

"A gift from Sadie." Onyx hopped over the table and pointed at the monster. "Hey!"

It turned around and stared at her with its soulless eyes and stupid grin.

"If I'm honest you don't look very dangerous." Onyx pulled out her scythe. "But if you insist on terrorizing my friends and others then you will be dealt with!"

The beast let out an unhuman roar. Onyx dashed towards it and with one clean slice she cut the thing in half, as she turned back to observe her handiwork she saw the cut miraculously heal itself.

"What?" She questioned.

Suddenly, the beast grabbed her with its long stretching arms and began to pull her closer and closer to its body. Onyx struggled against his greasy bonds.

"Let me go, you atrocity of nature."

The beast didn't listen and began to absorb Onyx into its squishy food filled body.

"I said…let me go!"

Her gem began to glow brightly and before she was swallowed up by the monster it launched out a massive shard of crystal that embedded in the monsters eye. It let go of Onyx and screamed in pain, trying to get it out.

Onyx fell back for a moment, steadying her breathing and trying to come up with a new plan.

And then, she heard screaming. Now the screaming of the monster, no, this was something different; it was a scream that belonged to no mouth that she could see. Then as she looked closer at the monstrosity she thought, for a brief moment, that she saw something glow.

She didn't have much of a choice at this point; she listened to her instincts and focused on that one point. Remembering where it was she clenched her fist and focused her strength.

"Time to go all in!"

The monster yelled again and Onyx took that as her cue, she ran toward the monster as fast as she could to build up momentum. Then when she was close enough she leaped forward and punched the beast so hard that she actually managed to pass through it.

When she came out she was covered in gunk but when she opened the hand she had clenched before there was a crystal shard inside. Without that crystal the monster hissed and then fell to the ground, an inanimate pile of nothing.

When the battle was all over Steven rushed from behind the table and gave Onyx a hug. "You did it Onyx!"

Onyx was surprised by the sudden display of affection, but she put her hand down on Steven's head and tussled his hair as a return of affection. "Thank you Steven."

Pearl also stepped out from behind the table and walked up to her. "Well done Onyx."

She nodded her head. "Thank you Pearl."

After all the commotion had settled a small boy with scraggly yellow hair and a man with tall yellow hair approached her.

"You're the one who stopped that thing?" The tall one asked.

"That's right."

He tipped his hat to her. "Thank you, without you we could have lost our whole store. Not to mention the respect of all the people."

"Yeah, you saved me and my pop." The little one added.

Onyx merely smiled back at them. "Just doing my job."

"Well, good night…and thanks again."

The two walked off and Onyx was left to think about her whole experience today. As of now she had no way of getting back to her home planet, but… she didn't want to; not I it meant she' have to leave Steven and the rest of the crystal gems.

"Steven." Onyx said.

"Yes?"

"I think I just made a friend.

Steven laughed. "I think you did."

**And that's a wrap! Still trying to pace things out, but next time you'll get an answer to some of the stranger things that have been happening to Onyx. **

**As of right now I'm trying to get these chapters to you guys about once a week but that may change considering how busy life keeps me. However, if you need some Steven Universe goodness to occupy your time while you wait for me I highly suggest you go to Tumblr and look up the blog "gemfuck" Weird name, but you will thank me for it.**

**Later!**


	6. Sight beyond sight

Onyx, Garnet, and Pearl were standing at the edge of the beach and looking towards the water. Garnet stared out into the distance with a neutral look on her face while Pearl seemed to be searching for something out in the distance.

"It's gotten closer." Pearl said.

"I've noticed, I think we may have to deal with it." Garnet added.

"What are you guys talking about?" Onyx asked.

Deciding to answer with actions instead of words Garnet picked up a sizeable rock and handed it to Onyx.

"Throw that as far as you can, try to hit that island way out in the distance."

Onyx could see an island from where she was standing, but it seemed way too far for her to hit it with this rock. Going for it anyway, she brought the rock close to her body; then she spun around faster and faster until she reached a sufficient speed and let it go.

It flew fairly high and fast, and it was defiantly close to hitting the island, but her shot fell short and it hit the water right before it reached the island.

Peal looked at Onyx with a sympathetic look. "Not bad, that traveled a lot further than I thought it would."

Onyx wondered what she meant but then Pearl realized her mistake and her face became nervous. "I mean, not that I expected you to do badly, but you must admit it's a very far distance away and-"

"It was a good shot." Garnet interrupted. "Keep practicing and you'll get stronger."

Onyx nodded. "Right."

Garnet reached down and picked up a rock that was at least twice the size of the one she gave Onyx. "My turn."

Garnet pulled her arm back and threw the rock much harder and faster than Onyx. It actually made it to the island but before it hit the surface a hand came up and swatted it away.

This action surprised Onyx. "What?"

"Yep, it's definitely on the move. I think we have to get rid of it."

Pearl sighed. "Too bad. It was quite nice to look at."

The two gems walked off the beach and back towards the house with Onyx close behind, still confused by what just happened.

"Hold on a second…the island's alive?" She asked for clarification.

Pearl nodded. "Yes, a massive gem on that island managed to animate it. There's enough energy to keep itself active but not for much else, so it either moves very slowly or not at all. But it's moved more in the last two weeks than it has in the last century or so, so we're going to destroy it."

"That sounds…" Onyx was excited by the idea of this battle. "Awesome! Can I come along?"

"Of course. Fighting an island is no easy feat; we'll need the whole team." Pearl looked around. "Speaking of which, where's Amethyst?"

Amethyst burst out of the house and put her arms around Pearl and Onyx's waists. "Hey guys. Guess what?"

Pearl groaned. "What is it Amethyst?"

"Steven learned to shapeshift."

Pearl was surprised. "What?"

"Well…kinda…I mean he changed his finger into a little cat."

"That shouldn't be possible."

"Wait a second…we can shapeshift?" Onyx asked curiously.

Pearl sighed. "All gems have the capability to shapeshift, because our bodies are basically just hard light holograms we can change our form into practically anything we can imagine. We can change into objects, other people, amplify parts of our bodies, and even fuse together."

"Fuse?"

Amethyst looked at Onyx like 'seriously?' "You really don't remember anything do you?"

"Amethyst! Rude!" Pearl said.

Onyx waved her hands up. "No, no, she's right to an extent. I don't remember much, but I do remember the important things." She took a deep breath. "My name is Onyx, I am a gem, I'm from the gemworld…" She put her hand on her head as a dull pain went through it. "Something…happened to me and now I can't remember anything specific about my past."

She walked between Pearl and Amethyst. "And I'm part of a team called the crystal gems…" She pulled them both in for a hug. "Made of the best gems I've ever met."

"Aw." Pearl said.

"Wait…we're the only gems you know." Amethyst pointed out.

"Don't ruin the moment Amethyst." Onyx asked.

"Yeah but…"

"I'm serious."

"All I'm saying is…"

"That's it."

Onyx stepped back and concentrated for a moment. Her body glowed and then shrunk as she turned into a small spider; using her new from she crawled onto Amethyst's leg and began climbing up it, tickling the gem in the process.

Amethyst laughed. "Stop it that tickles."

Onyx didn't listen and continued crawling through Amethysts' long white hair.

"That's it."

Amethyst banged her head forward and it sent spider Onyx flying out of her hair, then in midair the spider glowed and Onyx changed back to her original form and landed gracefully on the ground.

"Well that was easier than I thought it was going to be."

Amethyst laughed. "I know, right?"

Pearl groaned. "I'm glad you learned to shapeshift Onyx but try not to do that too often."

"Why? Is it dangerous?"

"Well…no, but…"

Amethyst shapeshifted into Pearl. "You shouldn't be doing that because I said so, and I'm Pearl and I'm so perfect." She said in a mock tone. Then she turned around and started smacking her own behind. "Womp, womp!"

The sight made Onyx laugh hysterically while Pearl scrunched up her face in anger. "Amethyst that wasn't funny the first time!"

Onyx kept chuckling. "I'm going to have to disagree with you there; I think it's quite amusing."

Pearl growled. "Amethyst! Stop this right now and go get the gem sloop."

Garnet walked out of the house holding a fairly big boat in her hands. "Already got it."

Pearl groaned again. "Fine, then get in the sloop."

Garnet walked towards the beach with the boat and Pearl and Onyx followed behind, Amethyst went back to the house for… some reason. Garnet set the boat down in the water and they all climbed inside, Amethyst jumped into the boat as it began sailing off but Steven tried to follow them.

"Amethyst, wait! "

Steven tried to walk towards the boat, but it was sailing off too quickly and he moved too slowly in the water. Meanwhile, the cats on his fingers began to hiss and he decided to stop following the boat; everyone looked at his fingers with shock.

"Steven, what's going on?" Pearl asked.

"It's nothing; I just…turned all my fingers into cats." He said dejectedly.

Amethyst laughed at the situation, but Pearl looked very un-amused.

"We have to stay and help Steven." Pearl begged.

"We can't, this is a tectonic emergency. We'll deal with Steven when we get back."

Onyx looked at the bottom of the boat. "Well…maybe I could…"

"No, we need you here. Steven will be fine."

Pearl looked at Amethyst angrily.

"Amethyst, I blame you for this."

Amethyst shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair."

Pearl growled, angry at this whole situation. "Steven! Just try to stay calm!" She shouted.

And so the four of them sailed off towards the island, Amethyst lay back in the sloop and looked very nonchalant. "Eh, he'll be fine. He's Steven, weird stuff happens to him all the time."

Suddenly, Onyx felt a small twinge in her stomach. Something akin to panic and fear, but it wasn't hers.

"You're…probably right Amethyst." Onyx agreed.

Soon enough they arrived on the island, they docked right on its beach and they all jumped off the boat.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Pearl said, summoning her spear. "The sooner we beat this thing the sooner we can get back to help Steven."

The rest of the gems summoned their respective weapons and walked forward on the island.

"Now if I were a giant living island, where would I hide my gem?" Pearl asked herself.

Suddenly, the sand they were standing on began to rumble underneath their feet and rise up from the ground. Tons of sand clumped together and formed a giant pair of hands and then it made a messy face that screamed at them.

"Should we start with the giant sand monster?" Onyx asked.

"Let's!"

One of its sand fists came flying towards the group but Garnet intercepted it with a punch, causing it to turn back to just sand. Another fist came at them and the rest of the group jumped out of the way. Onyx ran around the monster to stay out of its range, then she jumped up and buried her scythe in the monsters head; it screamed but it wasn't hurt too badly, the sand on its head began to rise and tried to consume Onyx but Amethyst grabbed her with her whip and pulled her out.

Onyx spit up some sand. "Why does nothing I cut die?" She asked.

Garnet raised her fists. "This monster is made of living sand; it'll keep attacking us relentlessly until we can find its gem. Destroy it and then look for the gem."

The gems ran forward to attack the best, Onyx tried to join them but she was suddenly stopped by a crippling pain in her abdomen. She crouched back down on the ground and tried to make it go away.

Garnet took notice of her friends distress. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Pain…pain in my stomach."

"What's going on? She hasn't been hit badly yet." Pearl said, before getting smacked aside by a wave of sand.

Onyx clutched her scythe and forced herself to get up. Pain wouldn't stop her from protecting her friends, a sand hand tried to clutch Amethyst but Onyx cut it in half with her scythe then it fell back to the ground.

"This is ridiculous! We could fight this thing for as long as we like but it seems to just come back a minute later!" Onyx exclaimed.

"We have to keep fighting." Garnet said, pounding the sand monster even further into the ground.

Onyx tried to join them but she was stopped by the crippling pain again.

"Pearl, check on Onyx! I'm punching things right now." She said as she continued to pound the minster into even smaller particles than it was already in.

Pearl came to Onyx's side and gave her a quick examination. "You don't have any visible injuries...what could be causing you such pain?"

Onyx grunted. "I've...i've felt this before. At the docks…when Steven was in trouble."

"You felt pain when Steven was in trouble?" Pearl questioned. "I've never heard of something like that but… 'gasp' does that mean Steven's in trouble right now?"

"No no… it only got really bad when I was super close to the source but then when I got there it dissipated."

"So why are you still in pain?"

"I don't know, I-"

"Pearl ,we need backup!" Garnet shouted.

Pearl nodded. "Just…try and stay down for the moment and come help if you can."

Onyx nodded and watched as the gems fought the sand monster and she just gritted her teeth in pain.

"Why is this happening to me? Why is my body turning against me, last time it- wait…"

Onyx remembered something else that happened the last time she felt this pain, the monster her body was warning about had a gem inside it. This island supposedly had a gem inside of it, but the girls couldn't find it inside the sand monster. Maybe…

Onyx closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began listening to that inner voice. The pain acted like a wave, reaching out and bouncing off everything around her, and then it resonated…she could see it without her sight, a bright blue gem underneath her feet.

Onyx opened her eyes and had a moment of realization. "We've been looking in the wrong place."

The pain no longer bothered her and she got up, running towards the end of the island. The gems looked at her, confused.

"Onyx, where are you going?" Pearl yelled.

"To get the gem!" She replied.

Not wasting any time Onyx ran to the edge of the island, then she jumped and dived into the water. She swam down into the depths until she was underneath the island and then she began to examine it, just like her vision had predicted there was a large blue gem sticking out of the bottom.

Onyx tried to pull the gem out with her bare hands but it was too stuck in there. Taking the more violent approach she summoned her scythe and began hacking at the stone that surrounded the gem and soon enough it began to crack. Then she cradled the gem in the hook of her scythe and forcibly ripped it out of the island.

Once it was out she took it in her arms and carried it up to the surface, she walked back to the middle of the island with the gem in her arms and when she caught up with the crystal gems she presented it to them.

"Is this what we came here to get?"

Garnet looked at it with her usual neutral expression. "That's it all right, well done Onyx."

She walked forward and took the gem from Onyx, then she created a bubble around it and teleported it back to the temple.

"How did you know that the gem was on the underside of the island?" Pearl asked.

Onyx put her hand to her chin. "I have a theory, why don't I explain it on our way back to Beach City?"

So all the gems made their way back to the sloop, by now the sun had set and night replaced the skies above. The gems were slowly sailing along while they had their conversations.

"So you think you can…sense gems?" Pearl affirmed.

Onyx nodded. "When I think about it, it makes sense; I saw the gem on the underside of the island, but I had my eyes close so I didn't really 'see' it but I felt it. Also, I was able to sense when that gem creature attacked the dock yesterday and I could see the gem in his body."

"But that doesn't explain the pain you experienced when you got near them."

"Maybe not but-"

Suddenly, Onyx felt like her chest exploded from the inside. This was ten times more painful than any of the other surges she felt before and it was so bad she actually screamed.

"AGH!" She cried out in pain.

The gems were concerned for their friend's condition. "What's wrong?"

Suddenly, images flashes in front of Onyx's eyes; she saw a mass of feline creature sin some sort of ball, they were a mashup of colors and faces, but there was one in that mix that wasn't feline…

"I-I see Steven."

"What? Is something wrong with him?" Pearl asked.

"Steven is…is…"

Onyx's eyes went blank and glowed, then her gem began to glow as well, energy began to build up inside until it was released in a shockwave that rocked the sloop and displaced the water around them.

When it was all over Onyx opened up her eyes (which were back to normal and breathed a sigh of relief, feeling totally at peace. "Steven is completely fine."

Pearl was confused. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Yes, we're going to get back to Beach City and find him 100% okay."

"O-okay." Pearl said hesitantly.

Amethyst looked at the whole situation with wide eyes. "That…was crazy."

"Yes, but I feel much better now. I think whatever was causing the pain was tied into the power and now that I've got it under control the pain has stopped." Onyx had a look of concern on her face. "And you can stop looking at me like that Garnet."

The gems looked at the ever neutral Garnet. "What do you mean?"

"You're looking at me like you're…worried, or disgusted, or angry about that power surge. I have no idea where it came from but I don't mean any harm to you or the gems."

Pearl gave Onyx a very concerned look. "Onyx, Garnet is a very difficult person to read, it's rude to assume that's what she's feeling and then call her out for it without a good reason."

Garnet looked down at the ground. "She's right though…"

The gems looked at her curiously.

"Huh?" Amethyst asked.

"I am worried about what kind of power you may have. We…I've seen too many gems get corrupted by power and I don't want that to happen to you to."

Onyx was warmed by that concept. "Thank you Garnet, but I have a feeling that as long as I have you to keep me sane I will be fine."

Amethyst and Pearl were still befudled by the exchange of words. "Okay, something seriously weird just happened."

"Amethyst." Pearl started.

"No, seriously, what the heck? Garnet's like a stone wall, how can you pick up any emotion from that?" She asked, slightly annoyed.

Onyx shrugged. "I…I don't know, it just felt like she was looking at me like that and those were the emotions she conveyed. Suddenly, Onyx had an epiphany. "Wait…"

"What is it?"

"Panic, fear…the pain that I experienced all came with those emotions. But I wasn't feeling any of those things at the time, it felt like it was coming from…somewhere else…"

"What are you saying?" Pearl asked.

"I felt when Amethyst was bored or upset, I read Garnet's emotions, I ran towards Steven when he was in danger even though I didn't know the lay of the land. Guys, I don't think I have just gem senses…I can sense the emotions of gems."

"Emotions?" Pearl put a hand to her chin. "It's entirely possible, all gemstones resonate in a different way, if someone was sensitive to that sort of thing it could allow them to…"

"Sense the energy outputs from other gems and interpret what it was putting out, in this case locations and emotions." Onyx began to get excited. "I have the ability to sense gems and emotions! That is incredible!"

"So… you have some kind of gem empathy?" Amethyst recapped, then she gasped. "You have gempathy! Ha!"

She laughed at her own joke.

Pearl rolled her eyes. "Hilarious Amethyst, for the moment let's just be happy that Onyx is one step closer to figuring out who she really is."

Onyx smiled. "That sounds nice."

The following morning the gems made it back to Beach City, just as Onyx predicted Steven was completely fine and managed to fix this problem by himself. Once again, the little human proved that he was very capable for someone of his age, it made Onyx hopeful of his future.

It was a good day or two; Onyx learned about a power she never had, she could now be a better asset to her team, and Steven introduced her to the human concept of puns.

Needless to say…she loved them.

**So yeah, every gem has a special power and Onyx's special skill is gempathy. There's actually a more complicated reason for how she has this power and why she was in pain while it was being unlocked but that would be delving into her backstory…and I'm keeping that sucker on lockdown for a little while. **

**Hope you enjoyed, next time we'll have an adventure with Steven in it. Hilarity will ensue for certain.**


	7. Who's the new girl?

**Ladies and gentleman, I give you not one but TWO foreshadowing's of pairings later on in this story. See if you can figure out what they are…**

Onyx was lying down on the couch, resting and relaxing her mind and body. With the power shift she was going through before settled she found relaxation more…peaceful.

Or course, peace never lasts as she felt to the ground beneath her rumble; it rumbled so much that it shook her off the couch and onto the floor.

"Ugh." She grabbed her head. "What's causing this rumbling?"

She went to the front porch of the house; she saw the gems walking across the beach and decided to join them.

"Guys!"

Without thinking she ran to the banister, hopped up on top of it and then leaped all the way to where they were, which was at least a dozen feet away.

"I was just…" then the realization sunk in. "Whoa I jumped far."

Garnet smiled a bit. "Your agility seems to be kicking in."

Onyx looked at her feet and kicked them in the sand a bit. "I suppose so. Light weight bodies combined with great strength would make a good propulsion system."

"So what's up?" Amethyst asked, returning to her original point.

"Right, have you guys been hearing these rumblings?"

Pearl nodded. "Yes, it's why we're out here. We're trying to figure out the source."

"I think it's just an earthquake." Amethyst added.

The group began walking back to the house. "I don't think they are earthquakes, they're too frequent." Pearl added.

Onyx gave it some thought. "I was reading a bit about the Earth's composition. Earthquakes do happen, but they usually don't have a sound to accompany them."

Suddenly, a bike rolled out in front of them with Steven close behind it.

"Hey look, Steven's got a bike!" She pointed out. "Where you going Steven?"

"Just out for a ride." He said plainly.

"In the sand?" Pearl questioned.

"…yes."

He got on the bike and began pumping his way through the sand laboriously. It was clear that it was very difficult to do.

"What's up with him?" Amethyst asked.

The group began to walk inside, as they did Onyx observed Steven's struggles.

"Maybe he doesn't realize that carrying the bike through the sand would be much easier?" She asked.

Pearl shrugged. "I don't know, but that's not important right now. We need to figure out what's causing these tremors."

"I suppose."

Suddenly, Onyx felt a twinge in her chest. Her new gempathy powers were picking up on something and it made her feel…tingly.

"Ooh." She said in an amused and excited tone.

The rest of the group looked at her curiously. "What's going on?"

"I feel…good." Onyx replied. "Warm on the inside with a slight twinge of nervousness." She went to the window and looked outside. "It's coming from Steven, he seems… on edge."

Now all the gems crowded near the window to see what was going on. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary save for the fact that Steven was talking to someone new.

"Do we recognize this girl?" Onyx asked.

"No." Garnet answered simply.

"I wonder if she could be the source of Steven's emotional state?"

They watch Steven leave his bike behind and throw his helmet to the ground, he ran back to the house looking upset as he slammed the door behind him. Trying to play off the incident he looked at the group with mock confidence.

"What up?" He asked coolly.

"Who were you talking to?" Pearl asked.

"Huh?" He replied in mock confusion.

"That girl." Garnet said bluntly.

That seemed to jog his memory. "Oh, she's a girl I know. But, she doesn't know me…we've never talked."

Amethyst gasped, then she ran up and pinched Steven's cheeks. "You like her!"

Now Onyx wanted to shrug that off as just Amethyst being her normal playful teasing self but… nervousness, facial expression, incohesive sentence forming…the signs were there but Onyx felt Steven's heart was uneasy.

"Uh…I like everyone." Steven replied.

"Let's set up a play date." Pearl suggested. "I'll write up an invitation and work out a schedule."

Onyx groaned at Pearl's behavior.

"We'll need to figure out her favorite kind of tea and-"

"No." Garnet interrupted. "Just go talk to her."

Steve nodded. "Okay." He began to go out the door but then turned around. "But you guys can't watch this time; you'll mess up my funky flow."

"Funky…flow?" Amethyst and Pearl questioned.

"It's sounds important." Onyx said.

"We won't interrupt." Garnet added.

"Great!" Steven rushed to the fridge and pulled something out of it.

"What's that?" Amethyst asked.

"Nothing!" Steven replied as he ran out the door.

All the gems were still a bit befuddled at what just happened. None of them were the best at human interaction so they didn't completely understand Steven's mindset, and it was clear that this is something Steven wanted to do on his own.

"I still think we should have made some kind of meeting." Pearl said.

Garnet re-adjusted her glasses. "This is something that Steven needs to work out on his own."

Onyx nodded in agreement. "I'm always one for self-sufficiency. Plus, there were quite a few conflicting emotions in him that I don't think a talk with us would settle them."

Pearl looked a bit dejected for a moment but then had a moment of realization. "Wait a second, Onyx you can sense gems. Why don't you just reach out and tell us what you're feeling from their conversation?"

Onyx questioned Pearl's motives. "Um…isn't that crossing the line in terms of privacy?"

"Just do it!" She said a bit forcefully, then coughed and changed her tone to a more gentle one. "Please…for me."

"Listen to the control freak Onyx, when she gets like this about Steven there's no use stopping it."

She groaned. "Very well."

Onyx sat on the floor and closed her eyes to aid in her concentration, her power extended out towards the beach and she began to pick up Steven's gem.

"Okay, I've got him."

"What's going on? How is he?" Pearl asked.

Onyx attempted to hone her focus. "Nervous…pretty much the same as before. I can't sense the other girl so I don't know what she's feeling and…"

Suddenly another rumble filled the room, it shook the floor but the gems remained steady.

"Danger."

"What?"

"Steven's worried…his tension is rising and he's moving faster. He's stopped and…" Onyx opened her eyes for a second. "Whoa."

"What is it now?"

"Power surge. He summoned a lot of magic at once; it came from deep within him."

"Does that mean he's in trouble?" Pearl asked nervously.

Onyx regained her focus on the boy. "No, he seems fine now. Whatever worried him before is gone… in fact; his fear is being replaced with confidence. He's surer of himself now."

"So…what then?" Pearl asked.

Onyx opened her eyes, got up from the floor, and crossed her arms. "I don't know."

"Well…why don't you check?"

Onyx shook her head. "You don't understand, I don't want to know. Spying on a person is wrong and Steven should be able to live his own life without us checking in on him every five seconds."

Pearl's gaze hardened and Amethyst realized this. She knew that Pearl was very protective of Steven and she didn't like being challenged.

"Oh snap." She said silently.

"Steven is still just a child, he needs guidance." Pearl offered.

"Guidance is different from coddling. That's what you're doing." She returned.

"Oh snap." Amethyst said a little bit louder.

"Excuse me for being concerned about his safety." Pearl replied, angrier now.

"Safety isn't the issue here, it's one thing for him to be safe in a situation. Isolation and safety are two completely different things."

Pearl scoffed. "I'm not isolating Steven."

Now Onyx was getting more upset. "You're concerned about him talking to someone we don't know, insisting that I tail the conversation, and you won't teach him about what we do."

"He knows what we do!" Pearl said.

"But you don't show him how to be careful in our situations! Have we taken him on any missions since the spire collapsed?"

"Well…no."

Onyx raised her arms in a challenging way. She knew what Pearl was doing, and while she agreed with some of it there were other parts she didn't like. Besides, if Steven was going to be a gem on level with the rest of them he needed some experience in combat and out in the field.

Plus…she was legitimately interested to see Steven's capabilities.

Pearl did not change her expression. "This discussion is over." Pearl began walking to the warp pad. "Do whatever you want; I'm going to find the source of these disturbances."

Amethyst and Garnet looked at Onyx with shock and concern.

"Dude…that was intense." Amethyst said.

Onyx shook her head, trying to get all these thoughts out of her head.

"I'm sorry, that was intense. The way Pearl was trying to…control Steven's life just really struck a chord with me. I'm not entirely sure why."

"Whatever the reason, it was something that needed to be said." Garnet added. "Though perhaps not told that way." Garnet began walking towards the warp pad. "We'll keep an eye on Pearl, you go check on Steven and make sure he doesn't get into any trouble."

Onyx nodded. "Understood."

Amethyst and Garnet walked off and teleported using the warp pad. Onyx walked to the front door and looked out to try and figure out where Steven went.

"Okay Steven, where'd you go?" She asked herself aloud.

He had definitely moved since the last time she checked. He was farther away, she could barely sense him, and he seemed to be moving. From the look of it he was somewhere in Beach City.

Onyx looked back down at her legs and thought back to what Garnet said this morning.

"Time to practice my agility."

Onyx leapt off the porch and began jumping towards town. The feeling was… liberating, she was soaring through the air above the ground and when she came back down she was propelled into the air once again.

Soon enough she was in Beach City, hoping from rooftop to rooftop to travel through it quickly.

"_If the humans knew how enjoyable this is they'd do it much more often."_

After a bit of traveling she picked up on some faint Steven energy. She hopped down from the roofs and landed in front of the Big Donut where Lars and Sadie where hanging around.

"AH!" They both screamed. After a second they realized who it was though and they relaxed "Wow Onyx, you startled us." Sadie pointed out.

Onyx looked at the two people and smiled. "Hello friends Sadie and Lars. How are you doing?"

Sadie chuckled. "Fine, thanks."

Onyx was glad; she liked these two humans and was glad to consider them friends. Then she remembered why she came here.

"I'm looking for Steven, have you seen him around here recently?"

Lars scoffed. "He was here like five minutes ago with his little girlfriend."

"Girl…friend? Steven said they have never talked before, how can she be his friend if they don't talk?"

Sadie shook her hands. "No, it means that they like each other."

"Well don't friends like each other?"

"Not like that, if someone's your girlfriend it means you like them in a…romantic way."

"Oh… Now Onyx totally got it "Oh!"

"And she's not his girlfriend Lars!" Sadie yelled back.

"Tell that to the love bubble that surrounded them." He said snidely.

This sparked another argument between the two and Onyx stopped listening for a moment to think. Love bubble? She's never seen Steven do that before, but something else was bothering her. She couldn't exactly…put her finger on it but it felt familiar, something between those two.

Unable to figure out what it was she shrugged it off. "Did you see which way they went?"

"Yeah, I think they were heading for the docks."

Onyx nodded. "Thank you."

She did a super jump back into the air and started traveling from roof to roof again.

"Whoa." They both said at the same time.

From up above the city it was easy to see where the docks were, she made it there in record time but saw no sign of Steven.

"_Damn, he's not here and he still isn't close enough for me to sense him. I wonder if someone else saw where he went."_

Luckily for her, there seemed to be a small child walking around the docks. Talking to him seemed like the best way to figure this out.

"Excuse me! Little human!"

The boy turned around to look at her but did not say a word, Onyx walked up to him.

"I'm sorry, but have you seen Steven anywhere?"

The boy just looked up at her with confusion. Did he not understand her? She asked a fairly simple question.

"Steven? He's a boy, a bit taller than you…"

He still remained silent.

"He wears a red shirt with a big yellow star in the center."

Still nothing.

She leaned down to look at him eye to eye. "Is there something wrong with you child?"

Onyx looked him in the eyes, and though she could not sense his emotions she could tell there was some serious darkness in his heart. His eyes were blank and emotionless and when she tried to look deeper all she could see was more darkness.

"What on Earth are you?"

Not answering the child turned around and started running away.

"Well that was…very unhelpful."

Feeling a bit saddened by her lack of success Onyx sat down at the edge of the dock, and looked wistfully out towards the expanding ocean and the sun began to set and decorate it with a golden hue.

Now that she had a chance to observe it in greater detail, it was very pretty. It seemed to stretch out for miles and miles with an unwavering sense of serenity. Its soothing nature helped calm her doubt, but it would be nice to find Steven before nightfall; she was sure the gems would be back by then.

"Where are you Steven? This city isn't that large, where could you have gone?"

She got up from her spot and began walking back towards the city, when suddenly…she felt it.

That twinge of energy, that panicked feeling in her chest… it was Steven. He was coming near her at a rapid pace; she turned around to gaze at him but couldn't see him, then in the distance she saw something hit the water and sink quickly.

She felt the energy travel down faster and faster and… oh no.

"Steven!" She exclaimed.

Without hesitating she jumped into the water and began to swim in its direction. The ocean was massive so it was slow going, and he seemed to travel further and further away from her.

"_I need to catch up with him, if only he wasn't moving so quickly…wait…"_

Onyx knew that Steven was sinking faster because he was heavy, if she could find a way to make herself heavy then she might be able to reach the bottom faster.

Calling upon her gem, she used her crystal generation power to make large black onyx boots for her feet; they did the trick as she began to sink towards the bottom at a nice quick pace.

Within a minute or two she reached the bottom, thankfully it was illuminated by the various shiny plants that grew down here so she could see where she was.

"Here I come Steven…"

She began walking around, following her gem to where Steven could be. His energy was coming in loud and clear but there was something else mixed in, something Onyx had never felt before. She decided it wasn't important, gems don't need to breathe so she could last quite a long time down here but Steven could not.

She was getting closer, she could feel Steven's energy more clearly he was…afraid, but this was a different kind of fear. It wasn't the panic of being in a serious situation, it was the fear for another person; it was compassionate.

Then the fear was replaced by a calm, caring nature that she had seen from Steven quite a few times. Finally she made it to where Steven was, she could see him in the bubble with the other girl in one of crevices on the sea floor.

But before she could get down there she was…stunned; she felt harmony in Steven's gem, a perfect balance of emotions and an overwhelming happiness. It was incredible; it was as if this girl's presence made him happier than she had ever seen him.

Soon enough, the harmony subsided as the bubble popped, Onyx knew these two wouldn't last long this deep underwater without air. She swam towards them and took one of them in each arm.

"Hold on." She mouthed.

She smashed her feet together causing her boots to shatter, then she pushed herself off the ocean's floor and began to swim up towards the surface. She moved as quickly as her legs would carry her and soon enough they had made it to the surface. The kids were gasping for breath and had probably swallowed some water, but they were okay and laughed off their death defying situation.

Yet again their moment was interrupted as a massive snake like creature emerged from the water's depths and created a crashing wave that carried them all to the shore. It took a moment for the shock to wear off but Onyx could see the worm monster slithering its way towards them.

"We have to move now!" She demanded.

She grabbed both of them and ran away from the beach towards the docks.

"Hide in the rocks!" the girl shouted.

She began climbing up the nearby rock pile but Onyx and Steven ran under the docks, strangely the worm followed her instead of the two.

"Why would it chase her?" Onyx asked.

Steven looked at her and immediately he had an idea.

"The bracelet!" He exclaimed.

"The what?"

"That monster eats bright stuff."

The worm began chasing the girl through the docks.

"Connie!" Steven cried as he ran off towards the worm monster.

Onyx wanted to join them, but she had a better idea. She jumped up on the docks and began running in the same direction as the worm, she summoned her scythe.

"Steven! Lure it under the docks and I can cleave its head off!"

Through the floorboards she could see Steven running away from the worm, but the patterns he was running in were sporadic. She wondered what he was doing but after a moment she saw that the worm was stuck, tied together by its own body.

Onyx jumped down back onto the beach next to the children and the roaring monster.

"Steven…that was genius!" Onyx congratulated.

Steven looked up at her with a slight smile. "Thank you!"

The beast kept roaring like a mad animal.

Onyx frowned. "Excuse me while I deal with this very annoying interruption." She walked towards the worm and raised her scythe over its head. "Open wide and say aaah!"

She brought the blade down on its neck and sliced it's head clean off, and since the gem wasn't connected to it anymore it exploded into a giant puff of smoke that blinded the group for a few seconds until it passed.

Onyx turned around and saw the two children holding hands, a sign of human affection. If this "Connie" made Steven this happy, she saw nothing wrong with her.

"Steven!" She could hear the rest of the gems shout.

They ran over to the group to examine the situation.

"Steven, what's going on? What did you do?" Pearl asked nervously.

"He was…incredible!" Connie gushed.

"Really? You mean it?"

The gem that was inside the worm bounced out and Onyx picked it up.

"Present for you."

She tossed it to Garnet who bubbled it back to the temple. Onyx smirked at the whole scene.

"I'm starting to rack up quite a few of these."

Pearl and Amethyst walked up to Connie, eager to meet this new girl in Steven's life.

"So…aren't you going to introduce us?" Amethyst asked.

"Steven was so excited to meet you, isn't that right Steven?" Pearl asked as Steven nodded stupidly.

Garnet walked up to the two unhelpful gems and hoisted them into the air with one hand.

"Hey, don't mess up his funky flow." Garnet said.

Then she walked away with the two gems leaving just the children and Onyx.

"So…you said your name was Connie?" Onyx asked.

'You're coming too Onyx!" Garnet shouted.

Onyx looked at the leader with disappointment. "What…why?"

"Because I can't carry you to, now come along."

"Ugh." Onyx groaned. "It was nice to meet you Connie, welcome to our world. Farewell!"

Onyx ran towards Garnet and quickly caught up with the rest of the gems.

"Why did I have to leave? I saved the children; I think that earns me the right to talk to them."

"We said we wouldn't interfere." Garnet said matter of factly. "Plus, Pearl needs to apologize to you for asking you to spy on Steven."

"But I…" Pearl sighed. "Fine."

Onyx smiled, she was glad to see they talked to Pearl and convinced her to apologize.

"And you need to apologize for speaking to Pearl in a rude manner."

Onyx's face was wide with shock. "But I…" Onyx sighed. "Fine."


	8. Like a record baby

**Well…this took longer than I thought it would. And it isn't even the longest chapter I've ever written. This one clocks out around 5,350 words (minus this author's note) but the longest chapter I've ever written was around 12,000 words.**

**Anyways, enjoy Serious Steven.**

Inside the honest home of the crystal gems their warp pad beamed down a column of light, signaling that they had returned from another mission. Adding to this image, all of the gems had bruises and marks on their bodies from their previous fight.

Amethyst groaned. "So tired."

She walked over to the couch and flopped down on it. Granted, their mission had been hard; they traveled to an underground cavern known as the Crystal Scar to flush out some gem monsters and had to fight a giant crystal scorpion (who was a lot harder to beat than they thought)

Onyx walked over to the couch and pushed Amethyst aside. "Move over." Then she flopped on the couch as well, but she was sitting up instead of lying down.

All the gems were tired from their long expedition; they were looking forward to some peace and quiet for a while-

"Guys!"

But peace and quiet never came easily as Steven ran up the steps of the house. "Guys you've gotta…wow." He walked up to the exhausted gems and looked at their injuries.

Onyx gave him a small wave. "Hello Steven."

"You guys don't look so good."

"Well we did just come back from a very dangerous mission." Pearl added.

"What?" Steven said in disbelief. "Why couldn't I come along?"

Onyx rolled her hand in the air. "We'll take you on the next mission, one that's not so…life threatening."

Steven looked at the group a bit saddened. "You guys need a break."

Amethyst groaned from her spot on the couch. "Trust me; I plan to take a nice long nap after this."

Steven pawed at the ground. "Um, actually I was coming to tell you guys that Funland opened recently."

Onyx looked at him curiously. "Funland?"

"Yeah! It's got a ton of fun games, cool rides, stuffed, animals, and funnel cake."

Amethyst looked up. "What's funnel cake?"

"It's fried dough, covered in-"

"I'm in!" Amethyst shouted.

"A chance to experience more human culture? Count me in to." Onyx added.

That only left Pearl and Garnet, the group looked at them and Garnet silently nodded giving her approval.

"Oh alright, we'll go to Funland." Pearl gave in.

"Yay!" The rest of the group yayed.

**Later, at the carnival…**

The group of four walked on a boardwalk that was filled with numerous people, booths, and activities; just as Steven had said. Everyone walked around and tried something different: Amethyst ate a ton funnel cake, Pearl was able to correctly guess how many jellybeans were in a jar (2,785 exactly) Garnet won the bell ringing contest using only her bare hands, and Onyx won a knife throwing game by using her crystal shards instead of the knives.

But the apex of their trip came when they stood below a large tower with spinning teacups; Steven said it was a ride and that he really wanted to ride it.

"Get ready Steven…" Garnet said as they stepped towards the front of the line. "This is going to be intense."

'I'm ready!" He said excitedly said.

They strapped into the ride and then it rose high up above the boardwalk and started spinning. Garnet, Steven, and Onyx were strapped in one car and Amethyst and Pearl were in another; Amethyst was asleep (probably still winded from the day's mission) and Pearl had the assumption that there would be actual tea.

Garnet smiled slightly and enjoyed the ride. "This is fun, right Steven?"

Steven's face looked sick, he was sweaty and his eyes were beginning to dilate. Onyx could tell that he was nervous.

He gripped his stomach. "Um…I need to get off this ride, like…right now!"

He moved towards the edge of the cup they were in, but he didn't remember that they were suspended in midair until he fell off.

"Steven!" Onyx and Garnet shouted.

Wasting no time, Onyx dove from the teacup and free fell to intercept Steven, she caught him in the air and then used her legs to cushion the force from the fall. Unfortunately, Onyx landed on the control panel and the force of the fall caused her to crush it.

Soon after it was destroyed the ride began spinning of of control and the other cups flew off the base, causing a lot of damage and shocking many people. Needless to say, Steven was not allowed on any rides…ever again.

**Two weeks later…**

Steven was lying on his bed looking up at the ceiling, he was feeling bummed because there was nothing for him to do. Everyone he knew was busy and the gems were about to go on a mission so he would be alone for at least a couple of hours.

While he was laying there Onyx walked over to his bead and leaned over to him, putting her face above his. "Steven…guess what?"

He sighed. "What is it?"

"The gems are going on a mission, and guess who gets to come with them?"

He pointed at her face. "You?"

She took his hand and spun it around so that now it was pointing at him. Seeing that made Steven excited.

"Me?"

"That's right buddy. Now come on, the rest of the gems are on the warp pad."

He shot from his bed super excited, grabbed his ukulele, and started running down the stairs. They all met on the warp pad and soon enough they were beaming out to their next destination.

"Pay attention Steven, this is going to be your first serious mission. You need to be ready." Garnet addressed.

Steven had stars in his eyes and his fists where clenched in excitement. "Yes! I'm ready! I'm so ready!"

He was spinning around in the lower gravity of the warp stream, Pearl stopped him from spinning.

"Steven stop that, you'll make yourself sick." As she tried to stop him she was accidently poked in the face by his small guitar. "Why did you bring that along?"

"I don't know! I was excited, and it's mine, and I like it!" he shouted excitedly.

The low gravity caused the guitar to float off his back, Steven swam up the light to try and get it back.

"Steven get back here, you could get seriously hurt!" Pearl shouted.

Soon they had reached their destination and the light of the coulomb began to disappear. It was going to reach Steven in a few seconds.

"Steven, try to land on your feet!" Onyx shouted.

Once he was out of the coulomb Steven fell to the ground but he landed on his feet, which still hurt but softened the blow quite a bit.

"Ugh." He said in slight pain as he was covered in some kind of sticky material.

"Steven!" Pearl shouted, rushing to his side. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" He got up from the ground. "It wasn't that big of a fall, I'm okay. Just a bit…gooey."

He licked the substance coating his arms…hopefully it was food. Suddenly, he was swarmed by white butterflies; they probably liked whatever the substance was that was on Steven and tried to eat it. Having them all over his body startled Steven and he began running around to try and get them out.

"They're in my eyes! AAAAAAGH!"

Steven ran around in a fright. Pearl looked at the group with worry and dismay but Onyx remained firm, she knew Steven had an innocent nature but a strong heart.

Steven tripped over a large branch and fell to the ground, Garnet took this opportunity to lightly brush the butterflies away from his face.

"They're just butterflies Steven." Garnet said caringly.

Steven nervously laughed at his embarrassment. "Well…they looked a lot bigger when they were on my eyeballs."

"Ha ha! Steven you're a riot!" Amethyst laughed.

"I'm suddenly having second thoughts about bringing Steven on this one." Pearl said nervously.

Onyx pointed a finger at her in accusation. "Hey. You said that this was a safe enough mission to bring him on and you promised we'd take him with us." She put her hand on Pearl's shoulder. "Besides, look at him…"

Steven had his arms crossed and his face scrunched up, like he was ready for anything. It was an image that warmed Onyx's heart…gem…whatever.

"Now let's go recover the gemstone." Garnet spoke.

The group walked through the field, it was filled with some kind of natural vegetation… but it seemed to be growing over something else.

"Unbelievable… this used to be a gem battlefield and now it's nothing but wild strawberries as far as the eyes can see! Oh, that's why I love the earth."

Those two words caught Onyx's attention. "Gem battlefield?"

Pearl didn't realize her slip up and her face became extremely nervous. She had to cover her tracks.

"Yes… two groups of gems fight here a few millenniums ago."

"What happened to them?"

"One side lost, and the other won." Garnet said simply.

"Well…who was fighting?"

Garnet looked back at Onyx with her usual emotionless glare. "We should keep moving."

"But I…" Onyx sighed. "Fine."

She couldn't blame them for not wanting to tell her, war was never a good thing. Her studies of human history had shown her that all the wars humans fought ended thousands of lives, but gems… gems were much more powerful than any human weapon. What sort of destruction could a gem army have caused?

Her thoughts were interrupted as they arrived at a giant upside down pyramid.

"This is it." Garnet said.

She summoned some kind of smaller pyramid and placed it inside a hole; it acted like a key and opened up a wall for the gems to use as an entrance.

"Wow." Steven said in amazement.

"Agreed." Onyx agreed.

They walked inside the temple and it was even more incredible, it looked old and yet advanced at the same time. Its design was ornate, but simple.

"Steven's the best!" Steven shouted.

The temple was so large that you could hear an echo form _"Steven's the best."_

"Why thank you temple!"

Onyx chuckled at Steven.

"You're a doof." Amethyst added.

Steven went off to explore the temple while the rest of the gems observed the drawings on the ceilings. Onyx may not know much about imagery, but these pictures where definitely depicting gems.

"Do these pictures have something to do with the battle you were talking about before?" Onyx asked.

She could see someone with spikey hair shooting dozens of projectiles, but they were all stopped by a large woman with long flowing hair and a mighty shield. Onyx had no idea who she was, but she was definitely a hero.

"Well-"

Pearl was about to explain but suddenly there was a rumbling above them, after some quick observing it looked like Steven was the cause so they all ran to him.

"Steven! What have we told you about touching magical things?" Pearl asked.

"Don't…do it?" He answered sheepishly.

Suddenly, gravity seemed to turn itself off and the gems were flung upwards into some kind of tunnel that led deeper into the temple. Despite traveling up they were headed for the ground, they all managed to land gracefully…and Onyx caught Steven right before he fell on his face.

They looked up and saw that the way they came in was now barricaded, so they needed a new way out. To make things more ominous, several braziers ignited in the room creating a ring of light all around them.

"Ominous." Onyx commented.

"Looks like we're gonna have to split up." Amethyst suggested.

"Good idea." Pearl grabbed onto Steven and pulled him closer to her. "Steven and I will wait here where it seems to be safe while you three figure out the secrets of the temple."

Onyx turned to her with a stern expression. "No. We'll cover more ground if we all go, Steven will be more than safe with one of us."

Amethyst raised up her hand. "Oh, me me!" She grabbed Steven and raised him up over her shoulder. "Come on Steven, let's go solve the mystery."

Steven raised his arms in excitement. "Yay! Mystery solvers."

Pearl intervened by grabbing Steven. "Nope. No, no, no, no, no, you two are a disaster just waiting to happen. I think he would be the safest if he went with-"

"I'll take him!" Onyx volunteered.

Pearl looked at her with a look of suspicion and derision. "Really?"

"Yes."

"You think Steven would be safer with you, then with a trained gem warrior like Garnet or I?"

She had a point, but Onyx remained firm. "Yes."

"And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Amethyst is too unstable, if she goes out on her own she'll get nowhere so you should probably stay with her. Garnet is tough enough to get through this by herself quickly, and if I went out by myself I'd be lost and confused and probably get myself hurt."

"How does brining Steven with you change that?"

She put a hand on his head and tussled his hair. "I've got a reason to be careful."

"This is ridiculous." Pearl shot down her argument.

"No." Garnet said. "It's a good idea. I do work better alone."

"But-"

"Steven goes with Onyx, that's final."

Steven had stars in his eyes form all the excitement going on. "Awesome!"

"But remember Steven, this is a serious mission."

Steven looked like he was ready. "Understood!" Steven put his hands up to his head in focus. "Serious Steven… Pearl could you let me down please?"

"Oh…sorry." She put him on his own two legs.

"Serious Steven…activate!"

He began walking towards one of the hallways with his brow furrowed and his arms pointed forward.

"Well… guess I'm following Steven." Onyx said.

She caught up with him and started walking right beside him.

"But… what if this is the teacups ride all over again?" Pearl asked.

"Hey, I've put that behind me." Steven said triumphantly.

Soon enough the two were out of sight from the rest of the group and walking down the dimly lit passage way. As they walked Steven began to sing.

"Oh… we're on a magic treasure hunt, for some magic treasure junk. Something…something…magic…something!"

Onyx smiled. "That's a good song Steven."

Steven waved it off. "Nah, it needs a chorus line."

Their conversation was interrupted as a door shut close behind them. They looked forward and saw a door leading to the next room; things looked fine until two six foot tall pillars rose out of the floor and on top of them where two balls made of yellow crystal.

"It looks like a straight shot to the other room. Walk forward, but be careful."

Steven nodded. "Right! Serious Steven time!"

Steven walked ahead of Onyx, wanting to get through the chamber as quick as he could. While he walked, however, he noticed that his hair began sticking up.

"Whoa…ha ha. Tingly."

He started playing with his hair and he could feel a sensation on the tip of his fingers. He looked closer and saw a little bit of static electricity, he reached out to grab it, but when he reached his arm up the jolt got stronger and shocked him.

"Ow!" He said as he pulled his hand back.

Suddenly, the two golden orbs turned bright red and began humming energy.

"That's not good." Onyx said aloud.

Suddenly, the floor opened up and several more pillars with red orbs came up out of the floor. They all began glowing with energy and you could see bolts arcing menacingly from one to the other.

"And…that's worse."

The energy collided and shot a bolt of energy at Onyx and Steven, Onyx ducked Steven's head down and they both got out of the way in time.

"Steven…"

"Yeah?"

"Run."

They both began running down the hallway to get to the door while avoiding the bolts of lightning coming at them. But they became more and more frequent and quite a few of them came close to hitting Steven, and that was something Onyx couldn't allow.

She summoned her scythe and held it in both hands. "Steven, keep running."

He ran forward ahead of her while Onyx stood back to back with Steven and began absorbing the bolts through her weapon. The downside being that it gave her a shock every time she got hit, but they were minor.

Soon enough the two reached the end of the room and the door slammed shut on the lightning chamber. Both gems took a break to breathe and get their bearings.

"That…was close." Steven said.

Onyx exhaled. "I know." She looked at Steven and a smile began forming on her lips. "I guess you could say that last room was a real…shocker."

Steven laughed, admiring her pun. Unfortunately, Stevens look changed from happy to sickness. Like he didn't feel well.

"Are you okay Steven? We can stop for a moment and rest if you'd like."

The young boy shook it off. "Huh? No I'm okay. Let's keep going."

Onyx nodded. "Right."

The two walked down another blank corridor of the temple in silence; clearly it was a bit awkward for Steven.

"So…any idea where the rest of the gems are?" He asked.

Onyx shrugged. "No idea." Onyx closed her eyes and listened to her sense. "My gempathy can't pinpoint where they are, I can sense them but they're all over the place. It's like… first they're there-"

She pointed to a nearby wall, then she pointed to a wall behind her. "And then in another second they're over there. It doesn't make any sense."

Steven put his hands up to the walls. "Maybe there are some shortcuts inside the temple, like a secret passageway or something?"

"I don't know, that doesn't seem…"

Suddenly, Onyx heard the sound of brick sliding. Steven had clearly moved something, and that caused another sound which came from above them and revealed…large, point spikes.

"Oh no."

Acting before her brain could catch up Onyx dove, grabbed Steven, and rolled her way out of the oncoming spikes. Before they had a chance to breathe two panels on both sides of them opened up and revealed even more menacing spikes.

With no time to get out of the way Onyx summoned her scythe and used it to jam the two walls, giving them enough breathing space to move.

Steven was freaking out at this point and running for the exit as quick as he could.

"Steven wait!"

Onyx needed him to stay close to her so she could keep him safe. But in his panic he was oblivious to more celling panels opening up, brandishing even more giant spikes.

"_He's not going to be able to- no!"_

Onyx dug her hands into the ground, and he gem began to glow brightly. As the ceiling spikes came down it looked like Steven was going to get crushed but three jagged Onyx stalagmites grew out of the ground and intercepted the falling spikes, stopping them from coming down. Steven looked at the spikes in amazement.

"Steven…can't keep this up for very long… moving would be nice."

Realizing that he was standing in place Steven ran out the door. Once he was safe Onyx quickly followed, but without her energy to keep up the stalagmites they began to lose integrity; it was a close shave as they pillars of crystal finally collapsed and Onyx slid out of the way just barely avoiding getting crushed.

Both Steven and Onyx were laying against the closed door, breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry." Steven apologized. "I didn't mean-"

Onyx put her arm on his shoulder, stopping his apology. "Steven, you had no idea that would happen. You're not at fault."

After relaxing for a moment they got up and dusted themselves off.

"That was pretty cool, what you did with those crystal stalactites."

"Stalagmites."

Steven looked at her confused.

"They're stalagmites not stalactites."

"Oh…I didn't know the difference."

Onyx smiled. "Neither did I until about 3 days ago."

Once they were rested and recovered they saw that they were standing on a balcony; the room they were in was huge, but barren.

"So, where's the door?" Steven asked.

"It looks like the door's up…" Onyx looked up to see the next door suspended way up in the air, there were some platforms to help them get up but they moved sporadically and didn't look very stable. "there."

Steven looked up nervously. "Uh…"

"Don't worry; this shouldn't be too much trouble."

Suddenly the floor below them was starting to be filled with a black inky material. Steven started to panic.

"It's okay; if necessary we'll just…swim up there."

But to make matters even worse a spark struck on the floor and the black material ignited creating a sea of fire that was slowly rising to the surface.

"Flaming oil?" Onyx screamed. Then she took a deep breath, she didn't want to worry Steven any more than he already was. "Ready for a climb Steven?"

"Ugh, uh, uh…"

Steven stuttered nervously before falling to the ground. Onyx was worried and shook him to try and get him back up.

"Steven…STEVEN!"

No such luck, he was out cold and it looked like nothing was going to get him up. With the fire slowly rising there wasn't enough time to wake him up, so she slung him over her shoulder.

"Hold tight Steven, this could get hairy."

Onyx leapt up to the first platform with Steven in tow, the next one was too high up for her to reach alone so she jumped to the adjacent wall and ran up that to get the proper height and then jumped off that wall to get to the platform.

The fire was quickly approaching, Onyx leapt from floating platform to platform as fast as she could but it wasn't enough. She decided to take one mega leap to the top as a last ditch effort; she put all her force into one leap, she soared through the air up towards the exit and…she fell short.

She felt herself losing momentum before she was going to reach the exit, doing the responsible thing she tossed Steven so that he landed on the exit platform as she fell towards fiery death.

Of course dying wasn't on her to do list today so she did her best to stop from being incinerated. She moved towards the wall and as she fell she summoned her scythe and cut into the wall and stop her from falling. She skidded along the wall as she fell, and just as it looked like it wasn't going to be enough…she stopped.

She could feel the flames dancing at her feet so she needed to move quickly; she pulled back, leapt upwards, and then using all her strength she dug the blade into the wall to hold her in place. She repeated this and climbed up the wall like a person climbs up a mountain.

Soon enough she reached back to the exit platform, she took Steven in her arms again and exited the room before they were bathed in fire.

Onyx was tired so she carefully set Steven on the ground and then proceeded to collapse onto the ground as well.

Within a second Steven regained consciousness and observed his surroundings. "What…happened?" he asked.

"You…passed out… I carried you… past the fire flood."

Steven looked at the ground sadly. "I'm sorry."

Onyx sat up and looked at Steven calmly. "No no, it's okay Steven."

"No it's not okay." He said painfully. He sat up as well. "I'm supposed to be a crystal gem, like you guys, but… I'm just not good enough. Maybe I would have been better off with Pearl."

Onyx frowned a Steven's statements. She knew he was strong, she could feel it, but he needed to believe himself first.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Steven… you never know what you're truly made of until you've been tested."

"But I couldn't have done any of that stuff back there. You almost got zapped, crushed, and burned because of me."

That was a hard point to argue with. "Well…yes, I suppose…"

Steven looked back at the ground with a sad expression. Okay, so clearly he blamed himself for all the trouble he caused, but it wasn't really his fault… wait…

"Steven, are you me?" Onyx asked.

"What?" He was confused.

"Are…you...me?"

"No."

"Exactly. You're you, and that means that you do things you're way: The Steven way, and that's perfectly fine."

"But… the tea cups…"

"Steven, you jumped because you didn't want to vomit in front of everyone, I don't think I can blame you for that."

Onyx sighed, time to bring her point home. "Look, being who you are is a great thing; it's a fantastic thing actually." Onyx looked down at her hands. "Right now… I don't know if this is the real me. I fight, I'm athletic, and I'm brave but that's it."

She stood up and looked towards him. "But you Steven, you make people smile. You sing songs, you tell jokes, you can make anything seem not as bad as it is and I think that's amazing. I can't do what you do and I may never be able to so…"

She reached her arm down, trying to help him get up. "For the moment…be happy with who you are. Flaws and all."

He looked at her hand and then back up to her face. His eyes were starting to get bright again as he grabbed onto her hand and pulled himself up. "Let's go get that gem."

Onyx smiled, that's what she wanted to hear.

They walked down another long boring hallway, and when they came through the door at the end they found…the exact same room that they had entered before?

"Impossible." Onyx said. It had to be the same room; the markings on the ceiling were identical.

"We're back where we started." Steven said. "Did we go around in a circle?"

Onyx shook her head. "We traveled in a straight line; we should have made some progress in the temple. So how are we back to the beginning?"

As Onyx pondered this Pearl and Garnet came in and joined them in the circle.

"Steven! Onyx! There you are." Pearl put an arm on Onyx. "We need to get out of here; the layout of this temple makes no sense!"

"I've gone through half of these hallways, and they all bring you back here." Garnet said.

Amethyst ran into the room now as well, and she seemed equally frustrated by her failures.

"Grr! We need to get out of here!"

Amethyst went down another hallway to try and find an exit.

"It doesn't make any sense, Steven and I traveled down three identical hallways and faced three challenge rooms."

"So did we. Even though we traveled in a straight line we keep looping back to the same room… this place is a deathtrap!"

Amethyst came back into the room, but this time she was encased in a block of ice. Pearl moved ver to try and chip her out while Garnet and Onyx thought of solutions.

"Could it be possible we've teleported?" Onyx asked.

"I didn't see or sense any teleporting devices in the hallways I went down."

Steven began to look nervous. "Well…what are we going to do?"

"We'll just have to keep going back, again and again, until we can figure a way out."

The sound of that made Steven sick to his stomach, he clenched his stomach and fell to the ground.

Onyx leaned down and put a hand on his shoulder. "Steven, are you okay?"

"No… I feel like I'm going to throw up. This is just like the tea cups all over again."

Pearl looked at him with concerned eyes. "Oh Steven, I didn't mean to-

Then Steven had a thought. "Wait! This IS like the teacups. What if we keep ending up in the same room because we keep getting spun around, and that's why I'm so sick?"

Onyx thought about it in her head. It made…a ton of sense.

"Steven…that's brilliant!" Onyx remarked as she summoned her scythe. "And if you want to stop the spinning, we have to break the ride!"

Onyx brought her scythe down on the ground and stuck the blade into the floor.

"Stalagmite swarm!"

Suddenly, giant pieces of Onyx began to grow out of the ground and cause even bigger cracks in the floor. Pretty soon the cracks became so big that the floor collapsed on itself and all the gems began to fall.

After falling for a little bit they reached some kind of spinning platforms where everyone got themselves situated. They could feel themselves spinning in circles through the temple.

"Incredible… this gem mechanism is what's powering the temple. It's spinning the rooms around so that no matter which way we traveled we always end up in the central chamber. It's just like tea cup ride at Funland." Pearl pointed out.

"Steven already figured that out!" Garnet shouted.

Pearl blushed with embarrassment. "Oh…right."

Onyx and Steven where on the sane platform, they both looked at the center of the room and saw a massive stone pillar. Steven could see the gemstone inside and he had an idea.

"Onyx… toss me."

She questioned the idea. "What?"

"I'm gonna go get that gem, and I'm gonna get it…" He flexed his arms muscularly. "The Steven way!"

Onyx smiled. "Alright…"

She picked up Steven and took him in one arm, she carefully aimed him and prepared for the toss.

"Onyx, what are you doing?" Pearl asked nervously.

"Using my serious Steven!"

She threw Steven at the pedestal; he flew through the air, gripped on to the top of it, and then carefully slid down and grabbed the gem from its socket.

AT first it looked easy enough to pull out, but then the gem began glowing in his hands. The rest of the walls began to glow as well and then they decomposed into energy and were absorbed by the gem.

"Um, guys, I think that thing's gonna…"

And then the gem grew brighter than anyone could see, and the temple exploded as they were blinded. Everyone got thrown into different places, debris was everywhere, and the gems could seriously feel the shock of the blast.

When they had regained their right frame of mind one question was at the front of their minds-

"Steven?" Pearl asked. "Steven, where are you?"

Onyx looked over the landscape and saw him lying down in the field, with the gem in his hands. "He's over there!" Onyx pointed out.

They all rushed to him to make sure he was okay. Luckily he didn't seem any the worse for wear…how is that possible? The explosion destroyed the temple, Steven was right at the center of it and yet all he has to show for it is a ripped t-shirt?

He truly was in incredible child.

Pearl took the gem from him and placed it into a bubble before sending back to the temple. "Well Steven, it looks like your first mission was a rousing success."

"Yeah, great job 'Serious Steven'" Amethyst congratulated.

Garnet walked over to the scene. "I prefer…" She held out his ukulele. "Normal Steven."

He was excited to see it. "Hey, my ukulele!"

He strummed it a bit to see if it was in tune and then he began to play a victory song. "Oh, that's the end of another day. It was mighty serious, I'd have to say. The crystal gems looked really cool when they made the temple explode!"

And then the butterflies came back because Steven was covered in more goo, not wanting to have a repeat of last time Onyx grabbed Steven by the shirt volar as he ran past her and swatted the butterflies away from him.

"Come on Steven, let's all go home."

They all began walking back to the warp pad when Onyx looked out towards the gem battlefield and saw something that caught her eye. She ran over to it.

"What are you doing?" Pearl asked.

Onyx grabbed on to the object in question and pulled it out of the ground, it was a large silver claymore that was at least as tall as she was. She didn't know why…but it intrigued her.

"Souvenir."


	9. Wrestlemania

**Today is Veteran's day, as such I thought it would be best to commemorate the people who protect this planet from some of its greatest threats without asking for any thanks or reward… I am of course speaking about The Crystal Gems!**

**Sorry this took so long, life has kept me pretty busy as of late and I didn't have the time to really sit down and write this story to the quality standard I have set for myself. But I'm here now, so I hope you enjoy.**

The crystal gems were on another dangerous mission; well not super dangerous, but still… on a scale of danger it'd be around a 7 out of 10.

A dangerous plant known as the blood polyp was growing in a field and if left unchecked it could absorb anything organic that it comes across, including people. Currently the gems were in an all-out battle with it; Garnet, Pearl, and Onyx were trying to hold off its tentacles… one of which had Amethyst in them.

"Hang on Amethyst, I'm coming!" Onyx cried.

She jumped into the air and tried to slice off the tentacle that was holding Amethyst but the plant monster decided to cut its losses and tossed her up, casing Onyx to miss.

Unlucky for the plant though, once Amethyst reached the apex of her flight she turned around and started barreling towards the plant monster at full speed. She increased the size of her fists to make the punch hurt as much as possible and then she slammed into it with all her might, killing it and squirting weird plant goo everywhere.

"Ugh! Amethyst!" Pearl cried out, hating to be even slightly dirty. It seemed Onyx and Steven got the worst of it as both of them were pretty much covered in the stuff except for their heads.

"We did it guys!" Amethyst cried in victory. "Come on, let's get back home. There's a bag of chips in the fridge I've been meaning to get to."

Everyone walked to the warp pad and stepped on, but Pearl was not done giving Amethyst flack for her actions.

"Amethyst, do you have any idea how reckless that was?"

The warp pad activated and they were beamed through space and back to the temple.

"How could you possibly think punching the blood polyp was a good idea?" She pointed to a small speck on her arm. "Look at all the gunk you got on me."

"Ahem." Onyx cleared her throat to alert Pearl to the two people who clearly had it worse than her.

"And look at Steven and Onyx."

"It's not so bad once you get used to it." Steven commented.

Onyx had to admit, it was slimy and sticky but not totally unpleasant; like being covered in syrup.

"See? He likes it." Amethyst said

"Well he certainly won't like it once it hardens."

"What?" Steven said in shock. "Um… I'm gonna go wash up."

Steven waddled away and Onyx wanted to join him but she could already feel the gunk hardening at her feet, making it impossible for her to move.

"He shouldn't have been that close in the first place."

"How was I supposed to know they'd pop?" Amethyst asked.

Onyx was feeling really uncomfortable being in the middle of this conversation, but since she couldn't move she tried her best to deal with the situation.

"Guys, a little help…" Onyx begged.

"You're always putting us in danger with your little outbursts!" Pearl berated.

Onyx rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, who's having an outburst right now? Oh yeah, it's you." She said meanly.

Pearl growled. "But she's so… childish."

"Yeah yeah, don't forget reckless, vulgar, loudmouthed-"

"And that's only from today, who knows what you've said about her in the past?" Onyx wondered aloud.

Amethyst looked up to Garnet. "Back me up here G."

Garnet looked down at Amethyst while she held the sides of her head, presumably she was getting a headache from all their arguing.

"Amethyst, you are a crystal gem. You need to act like it."

Because Onyx was still she couldn't turn to look at Amethyst's face but she could tell that the small gem was hurting. She could feel sadness in her, and she was trying to push it back and stop it from getting out.

"Fine, whatever." Amethyst said in an annoyed tone.

She turned around and retreated into her room.

Onyx furrowed her eyebrows. "Pearl, please come look at me face to face so I can show you how displeased I am."

Pearl was surprised by her response. "Excuse me?"

"Amethyst exudes anti-authority, asking her to be more like you will only make her more agitated, not less."

"I wasn't asking her to be like me."

Onyx scoffed again. "Please, we all know you think yourself as some kind of perfect being. You think everyone has something to learn from you."

Pearl clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, and then she turned around and walked to the door.

Garnet looked at Onyx. "That was rude."

"That was exactly what Pearl did to Amethyst: making her feel small so she could swoop in and tell her how to run her life."

Garnet remained silent, whether because she knew Onyx was right or because she didn't want to get in a disagreement with her at this moment.

"You need to think about what you say before you say it."

Garnet walked to the front door as well to chase after Pearl.

"So you're not going to help me with this then?" She asked.

Garnet shut the door behind her forcefully.

"I guess not."

Onyx sighed. "Okay Onyx, you can do this. Just focus and…"

She closed her eyes and figured out a way to get free. Her gem began to glow beneath the liquid bonds and soon enough a giant onyx spike protruded from her gem and broke her bonds.

"Ha ha! That's what I'm talking about."

The spike retracted back into her gem. Onyx was about to walk off when-

"Um…Onyx?"

She turned around and saw Steven was in the same compromising condition.

"Right." She walked over and kneeled down to his level. "Don't worry Steven; I'll have you out in a jiffy."

Onyx stuck out her hand and suddenly one of her fingers was covered in an onyx claw; she used it to cut into the hard goo substance and then dragged it down his body. Once a solid cut was made Onyx pried the two halves open and Steven was freed.

"There you go little buddy." She stood back up and put her hands on her hips. "Now that you're free, what do you wanna do?"

"Watch TV!"

Steven ran to his bed and flopped down; he grabbed the remote and pointed it at the TV. Suddenly, it glowed brightly and images flashed on it.

Onyx walked over and looked at the box curiously. "I assume this is a form of entertainment?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah, it's tons of fun." He handed her the remote. "Go ahead. Try it."

Onyx took the remote and sat on the edge of the bed, she pressed a button and the channel had changed.

It showed a woman gesturing to some kind of dress; she appeared to be trying to sell it. Onyx wouldn't buy it, she can make her own outfits…also it was really ugly.

She pressed the channel button and kept flipping around until she found something that interested her: cartoons? No, she didn't understand their premises. Politics? She's not from this planet so she wouldn't understand those.

This went on for about ten minutes until finally she came across something she could enjoy and understand: fighting.

"This looks interesting." She stated.

She put down the remote and watched with Steven as the two combatants traded blows, one was wearing a yellow mask and pants with red spots on it and his name was Prince Puma. His opponent, was wearing black leather pants with long hair that came down to his neck and his name was Johnny Mundo.

"Oh, this is Lucha! It's rarely if ever on!" Steven said excitedly.

"Lucha?" Onyx asked.

"Yeah, it's when two people fight each other until the other one gets tired and they can pin them. Lucha is different because it's Spanish and the people wear masks."

Onyx nodded in understanding as they watched the match take place. She had to admit, these humans knew how to fight; they would slam into each other, kick each other, and pull themselves into holds that were both effective and devastating to their bodies. She liked this.

"Well, looks like we found something to watch." Onyx stated.

And so the two sat back and watched Lucha for quite a while.

**Later that night…**

Steven was snoring on his bed fast asleep from his long day, Onyx sat on the floor close by his side in silent reflection.

Suddenly she heard a buzzing sound, it sounded like the door to the temple being opened. She opened her eyes and saw a small form rush out of the temple in a black robe, there was only one gem she knew who would do that.

"Amethyst?" She wondered.

Amethyst quickly left the house and started running down the beach. Curious where she was going, Onyx got up and ran to the front of the house to see where she as running off to; when she got outside Amethyst was fairly far off but it looked like she was headed for the town.

"Why would she be headed to town?" Onyx wondered.

She needed answers, so Onyx got a running start and then leaped up into the air and started following Amethyst. In mid-air she transformed into a bird and started flying above her to follow her without being seen.

Eventually Amethyst ducked inside a building and Onyx could no longer see her.

"Why does she want in there?" She wondered.

She dived down and perched herself in a windowsill where she could look inside. It was full of people, even some Onyx had met before; what could Amethyst be doing here?

She didn't have to wonder for long however, because within a second Amethyst jumped up into some kind of stage, she was transformed so that she looked much bigger and hairier than normal but Onyx could tell it was her.

Things got underway and Amethyst knocked someone out and threw them out of the ring pretty quickly. Then she charged outside victoriously and shrunk back down into her original form.

Deciding that now would be the best time to get answers Onyx glided down and turned back to her normal form while landing behind Amethyst.

"You better have an explanation for this." She said coldly.

Amethyst was surprised, she spun around and tried to catch Onyx in a kick but she saw it coming and grabbed her leg. Once Amethyst knew who she was attacking she backed down.

"What are you doing here?" Amethyst asked irritated.

"I could ask you the same question. You sneak out in the middle of the night and I wonder where you're going; forgive me for being concerned."

"No it's just…uugh! It's complicated."

Onyx thought about her situation. "Doesn't look too complicated to me. You're upset and irritated so you use wrestling as an outlet. My only problem is why are you fighting humans? Couldn't you fight other monsters and get a more satisfying result?"

Amethyst rubbed her shoulder. "Yeah, I tried that once…didn't go too well. Some of those monsters out there are really tough."

"And I assume you're fighting in secret because the other gems disapprove?"

Amethyst growled. "They're always breathing down my back, always asking me to be a better gem. What if I don't wanna be a better gem? What if I just want to be me?"

Onyx listened to everything Amethyst had said and…she couldn't find much fault in it. She clearly wasn't hurting people and if it helped keep her calm then she was all for it.

"I'm not going to tell the gems." She stated

"Huh?"

"You're worried I'm going to tell the other gems on you, don't worry I won't."

She looked excited. "Really?"

"Yeah. This is your thing and I see no reason to take it away from you. We're the only two people that have to know."

"GUYS!"

They head someone yelling at them, then they looked down the way and saw Steven running towards them. He stopped and leaned over for a moment trying to catch his breath, it seems he couldn't run very far or fast.

"What's…going…on?" He asked.

"Amethyst is a secret wrestler."

"What?" Steven said in surprise.

Amethyst punched her in the shoulder. "I thought you said you weren't going to tell the other gems."

"He's not a gem, he's a Steven; totally different."

Amethyst and Onyx explained the situation to Steven, about how Amethyst wrestled so she could fight freely.

"So…you're a stifled wrestler?" Steven asks.

Amethyst nodded nonchalantly. "Pretty much."

"Can I be a wrestler too? I'm super stifled."

Onyx saw the clear danger in this so she intervened.

"Whoa Steven. I know you're a pretty capable child, but these people are still quite a bit bigger than you. Plus if you get hurt we'll have Pearl to deal with and I don't think anyone wants that."

Steven and Amethyst nodded in agreement. Then Steven had an idea.

"Well… how about you wrestle with Amethyst and I can be your manager?"

Amethyst smiled at the thought. "That could be cool, I haven't won the tag team belt yet."

Onyx put her fist in her hand. "A chance to fight in an arena for the adulation of an audience? I'm so in."

"But we don't tell Pearl and Garnet about any of this. Deal?"

"Deal." Both Steven and Onyx agreed.

**The next day…**

Onyx and Steven and spent all day coming up with idea for who they wanted to be. Steven said that if you want to be a wrestler you need a mask and a cool name, after cycling through several possible ideas they both found what they liked.

"Introducing…"

Onyx jumped down to the living room to demonstrate her wrestler's attire: She still had her gray skin but she wore a black mask with a silver point pattern around the eyes and mouth, she wore a black full body suit with matching boots but no sleeves to keep her arms open.

"Black Vulcan!"

Amethyst chuckled at her attire and enthusiasm. "Not bad."

"And your new manager…"

Steven jumped down and landed on the couch; he had slicked back hair, a money tie, a briefcase (also with a money sign on it) and a cat mouth piece.

"Tiger millionaire!" He exclaimed joyfully. "Rich feline industrialist from jungle island."

Amethyst laughed out loud this time. "Very nice Steven." She got up off the couch and then morphed into her Purple Puma outfit. "I think it's time to win us a tag team belt."

**That night…**

Onyx and Amethyst were prepared to go into the ring, they had been waiting all day for this and they were both excited.

The announcer stepped up and took the microphone to get the fight started. "Let's introduce out contenders tonight: two local heroes who build hospitals for the sick and muscles that look slick. Give it up for Concrete Pete and Chunk Truck!"

The audience seemed happy to see them.

"Facing off against Purple Puma and her new partner: Black Vulcan!"

The audience booed them both pretty loudly. Why was it they hated Amethyst so? Wasn't fighting the whole point of this?

Onyx and Amethyst leapt into the ring as the bell sounded, telling everyone it was time to fight.

"Ready Amethyst?" Onyx asked.

"Ready."

"Okay, so I'm thinking we go in and-"

"ARRRGH!"

Amethyst didn't listen; instead she rushed in like a feral animal and smacked one guy out of the ring with both her arms. He went flying and hit the wall, effectively making him out.

While she was busy she didn't seem to notice someone sneaking behind her with a traffic cone, Onyx saw this as her chance to help. She rushed forward, ready to slam this person into the ground when…

Too late, Amethyst intercepted this attack and gave the man a backhand. It wasn't the strongest she could hit but it was more than enough to knock the guy on his butt.

"Oh…okay then."

And that pretty much describes Onyx's whole wrestling courier. Amethyst was way too aggressive in the ring; she would knock them down in a second before they even had a chance to fight. Not only was she not giving Onyx a chance to show her skills but she could see that people were getting really hurt; Amethyst was losing control.

This went on for several nights; each match Onyx became more and more unsure that this was a good idea.

On the day of the final match Onyx leaned in the doorway, thinking about all she had done and finally she came to a conclusion.

"Hey Vulcan!" Amethyst greeted. "Ready to win out final match?"

Onyx shook her head. "No."

Amethyst was surprised. "Huh? What do you mean no?"

"I mean I'm done Amethyst, I'm pulling the plug."

Now Amethyst was starting to get up in arms. "What, so that's it? We come all this way and then you're just gonna give up?'

Onyx looked down at Amethyst. "'We'? When has any part of this competition been about us? It's all about you."

Amethyst's eyes widened, it was clear she didn't like hearing this.

"You're obsessed Amethyst. I admit that I enjoy a good fight, when I get to lash out at my enemies and prove my own strength it's a great feeling, but this… this isn't fighting. It's not even sport."

Amethyst started getting angry.

"What are you saying?'

"I'm saying you're taking advantage of this whole wrestling thing and I want you to stop."

Amethyst clenched her fists. "So it's come to this…"

Onyx wondered what she meant by that.

"First Pearl and Garnet tell me I need to clean up my act, then you come around and pretend to be my friend…only to stab me in the back!"

"Hey!" Onyx shouted. "I'm trying to save you from yourself! What happens if you lose control Amethyst? How much damage could you cause?"

Amethyst didn't answer; instead she pushed Onyx to the side and walked out the door.

"I don't need you! I've been doing this on my own, so I'll finish it on your own!"

Amethyst began walking down the steps; Onyx tried one more time to convince her.

"You can't run away from these feelings Amethyst, you need to realize what you're doing."

Amethyst stopped and looked over her shoulder. "I only feel what I want to feel."

She walked off upset and angry. Onyx didn't want it to come to this, but it looked like she had no choice…

**That night…**

It was time for the final match, the stage was dark and the announcer stood in the center.

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the tag team championship!"

Everyone applauded.

"In the ring tonight, they stomped their way through the tournament and into our hearts. Get ready for Dashing Dave and Handsome Hank!"

"It all comes down to this folks, one last match for the tag team belt. Standing in their way are the dreaded tag team of Purple Puma and-"

Everyone looked to the side but noticed that her partner wasn't there.

"Wait, where is Vulcan?" The announcer cried out.

"RIGHT HERE!"

Onyx was standing at the back of the room, behind the audience rows where they couldn't see her until she announced herself. When she id a spotlight beamed down on her as she slowly walked towards the stage and climbed into the ring.

When she got there she climbed into the ring and took the mic from the announcer.

"Purple Puma! I'm calling you out!" She screamed as she pointed at Amethyst.

Amethyst looked somewhat shocked by this.

"I joined this tournament to embrace in the honorable tradition of wrestling. But the way you fight…it is rough, it is hurtful, and it is not fair. Today, I'm putting an end to your reign of terror once and for all!"

The whole crowd cheered, glad to hear that they person they despised was about to get what's coming to them.

"Hey!" One member of the opposing team shouter. "We came here to wrestle and win that belt, there's no way you're gonna deny us that right."

They ran into the ring and charged at Onyx; she stopped them by grabbing one of her opponents by his arm and then twisting it so that it caused him to bend over in pain, then she swept her foot underneath him so he tripped, and finished it off by throwing him into his team member which knocked both of them out.

"Rude." She said simply.

With the match set up she walked forward until she was practically chest to chest with Amethyst. In her state Amethyst was bigger and looked stronger than Onyx, but she had technique on her side which she planned to use to her advantage.

"You don't want to do this." Amethyst said menacingly.

"On the contrary, I really do want this."

Scared for his life, the announcer jumped out of the ring and then rung the bell on this incredibly tense fight.

The fight got started quickly: Amethyst and Onyx grabbed each other's arms and started pushing into each other as hard as they could. However, Amethyst was fundamentally stronger so Onyx had to dig her feet into the ground just to stop herself from sliding.

"Do you honestly think you can beat me?" Amethyst asked.

"If I don't, who will?"

Amethyst won their power struggle and threw Onyx to the side, she skidded across the ring but she managed to get back on her feet fairly quickly.

Now Onyx went on the offensive, she ran towards Amethyst as fast as she could; Amethyst tried to hit her with her arms but Onyx ducked underneath the blow and continued running. She made it to the edge of the ring, then she leaned against the ropes of the ring as hard as she could and it propelled her back towards Amethyst even faster than before, and then Onyx jumped up and slammed both her legs into Amethyst's chest which knocked them both to the ground.

Amethyst growled as she slowly got up. "That's it punk…"

Onyx tried to get some distance between her and Amethyst but she was too slow; Amethyst grabbed her by the leg and started slamming her into the ring over and over again. It was brutal, but Onyx could do nothing to get out of it.

Thankfully, she didn't have to suffer for long though because as she was getting pounded something came from the ceiling and slammed right in the middle of the two combatants which separated them. After focusing her vision she realized it was Garnet and Pearl.

"Garnet…Pearl?" Onyx questioned.

"What are you doing here?" Amethyst asked.

"What are we doing here? What on earth are you two doing here?" Pearl said.

Amethyst looked down at Onyx with hatred in her eyes. "You told them…" She began stomping back towards Onyx. "You weren't going to be satisfied until I was unhappy were you?"

Amethyst raised her fist to come down on Onyx but Garnet put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Onyx didn't tell us."

Amethyst was shocked. "What? Then who…"

"I did!"

Everyone gasped and saw their manager: Tiger Millionaire standing in the audience.

"What?" Onyx questioned.

"I saw you two fighting, and I knew that if this was going to tear you two apart it needed to be stopped."

Amethyst groaned. "Well too bad! You can't take this away from me."

"Amethyst… go back to the temple." Garnet said softly.

"I don't wanna!"

She shoved Garnet into the ring, it made her move but she stayed on her feet.

"Don't do this Amethyst." Garnet warned.

Onyx could sense how deadly serious Garnet was, she was ready to take her down…

Amethyst ran at Garnet and prepared to punch her, Garnet was ready to counter…but Onyx stepped in at the last second and roundhouse kicked Amethyst in the face, knocking her off course.

"Pearl, Garnet, Steven…back up."

"But-" Pearl tried to begin.

"This is my fight. I enabled Amethyst and now I'm bringing down the monster I helped unleash."

Garnet thought about it for a second and then she backed up, giving both gems ample room to fight. Pearl leapt out of the ring and stood close by to Steven.

Amethyst shook her head in a daze, then when she regained focus she growled at Onyx.

"This ends now Amethyst." Onyx cracked her knuckles and flashed a cocky grin. "No holding back."

And so the fight began again: Amethyst made another charge attack at Onyx but this time she knew how to deal with it. As Amethyst reeled up for a punch Onyx prepared her own, but she came up with her attack and punched Amethyst in the chest. This blow knocked the wind out of Amethyst and Onyx followed it up with a few more quick and powerful punches before giving Amethyst a sturdy uppercut which caused her to crash into the wall.

Amethyst was stuck in the wall due to the force of the blow, but she didn't stay there for long. She jumped at Onyx, who kicked her to the side again; this time Amethyst recovered from that blow much quicker and landed on the ropes of the ring.

Amethyst jumped from the ropes, and then Onyx jumped into the air to meet her. They came together in mid-air and Amethyst tried to attack her, but Onyx wrapped her legs around her waist and her arms around her neck so she couldn't break out. Then she used the force of gravity to bring them back down and she slammed Amethyst into the ring so hard that it actually broke and made a hole on the ring.

Everything was quiet for a moment, you could hear a pin drop in the arena. Soon enough though Onyx climbed out of the ring, and in her hands she held Amethyst who was now unconscious.

Seeing this made the audience cheer, they were actually happy to see the person they liked the least get defeated. But all this left a sour taste in Onyx's mouth, one she couldn't let sit there.

She grabbed the mike from the announcer and addressed the audience.

"STOP!"

And then the room went quiet again.

"Look at this! You're all cheering because someone was defeated, beaten and broken to the point where they were knocked unconscious. Have you no sense of shame?"

The audience began murmuring to themselves.

"Did you not realize that Purple Puma was out of control? How she fought with no remorse and ended things before giving her opponents a fair chance? I will not justify her actions but I do understand them."

Garnet and Pearl realized that now she was referring to them.

"Everyone needs an outlet for their emotions, otherwise we let them build up and they became too wild to contain…which is why I'm putting an end to this now."

The audience gasped.

"From this point onward, the Purple Puma and Black Vulcan shall never wrestle again!"

The crowd went into an uproar at that point, yelling various comments…some of them were quite rude. The gems decided to use this as an opportunity to escape; Garnet leapt out the big hole in the wall, Pearl grabbed Steven and followed her lead, and Onyx grabbed Amethyst…though as she leapt out she grabbed the tag team championships belts with her free hand.

**Later that night…**

Amethyst gagged and sputtered as she felt water being poured on her face, she may not have needed to breathe but she still found it jarring. She opened her tired eyes and was face to face with Onyx.

"Nice of you to join me." Onyx said slightly sarcastically.

Amethyst sighed. "Hey." She sat up and looked around, she was laying on the couch but the room was dark and no one else was around. "Where's everyone else?"

"They're all in their respective rooms. It's just you and me."

Amethyst groaned. "Can this wait till tomorrow? My head feels like I got hit by a truck."

"Well…I did slam you through a wrestling ring."

"Oh yeah."

That made both of them chuckle a bit, but they stopped when they realized their situation.

"Look Onyx I-"

Onyx held up a hand. "Don't worry; I've already forgiven you and so have the rest of the gems."

Amethyst smiled a bit and leaned in to the chair to get more comfortable. "I hate to say it but…you were right."

"About?"

"Pretty much everything. I was out of control out there and I could have seriously hurt you or someone else."

"Well maybe someone else but…I beat you pretty badly."

"Right…"

Amethyst looked down at the floor dejectedly.

"Look Amethyst-" Onyx began. "I can understand why you harbor resentment of the gems."

"You don't know everything…" Amethyst said mysteriously.

"Regardless, we came to an agreement that it they wrong to keep bearing down on you as hard as they did but that didn't mean you had to go and take out your frustration on humans." Onyx put a hand on her shoulder. "If you need some stuff worked out come find me, I'm a good listener…and a good sparring partner."

Amethyst seemed to legitimately appreciate Onyx's concern; she looked at her with a sparkle in her eyes and warmness in her gem which Onyx could sense. She was definitely happy now.

"Thanks Onyx."

Onyx reached down and showed her the tag team champion belts. "I managed to grab these on my way out. What do you say about ending Purple Puma's career on a high note?"

Amethyst took the belt and looked at it. "Yeah… I think I can live with that."

Amethyst got up from the couch and walked to her room. Onyx soon followed and placed her new belt on the wall, another trophy from her various adventures here on Earth.


	10. Pink fluffy lions fighting a sand gem

**In celebration of Steven bomb starting tomorrow I bring you the next chapter of my story… finally!**

Could one day go by without a mission? Onyx wasn't trying to be rude, she enjoyed the work she did with the crystal gems, but why were they always fighting monsters?

This time around they had to trek into the desert and look for some gem that could manipulate sand; they believed that it was becoming corrupted because it was creating structures without any purpose so now they had to destroy it.

The heat of the desert didn't bother Onyx too much; it was the sand that got to her: shifting underneath her feet all the time, never staying solid or in place. It was the opposite of stone…and she didn't like it.

Thankfully their walk through the desert was short, it was clear to see where the gem was and from there it would be a simple matter of removing it and then sending it back to the temple.

The gem warriors ran towards the pyramid while Steven stayed behind, he was tired from the desert's brutal landscape and he was afraid there was something out in its vast expanses that was coming to get him. Garnet dissuaded his worries and ran with the rest of the gem warriors.

"Are you sure Steven will be alright?" Onyx asked.

"There's nothing else out here for miles." Garnet answered.

Onyx shook her head. "I don't know, I think I sense something out in the distance. I can't…exactly pinpoint it but it's definitely an energy signature."

"Well, if we're lucky we'll beat this thing quickly and we won't have to figure out what it is."

Onyx nodded. "Fair enough."

The gems were at the foot of the sand pyramid, they all drew their weapons and prepared for a fight.

"So, can we assume the gem's at the top?" Onyx asked.

"We can." Pearl added.

"Good."

They all ran up the stairs trying to get to the gem, suddenly the ground beneath them shook and the stairs became wobbly. Because of their instability the stairs turned back into a pile of sand and started rolling down the hill, the gems could dodge the hill but Onyx was swept up in the sand and got buried underneath it.

It disoriented her, but the sand wasn't all that heavy so she just pushed out of it. "Why is sand always trying to suffocate me?" She yelled out loud.

Garnet and Pearl weren't having much luck either, they could barely hold back the torrent of sand coming their way.

Onyx got up from the ground and dusted herself off. "Okay temple, you wanna do this the hard way? We'll do this the hard way."

Onyx leapt from her spot and started jumping up the pile, she touched the ground ever so slightly and then pushed off with a ton of force which made sure she kept moving and that she wasn't getting swept up by the sand.

As she jumped up she saw Amethyst running up the pile as fast as she could, but with her stubby legs all she could do was run in place, then as she saw Onyx jump past her she got an idea.

"Hey Onyx, can you give me a boost? I think I can grab the gem if you boost me."

Onyx nodded. "Can do."

She jumped to where Amethyst was, then she grabbed her by the back of her shirt and gave her a quick toss up to the top of the sand pyramid. Actually, Amethyst sailed over the pyramid but she managed to summon her whip and throw it so that it wrapped around the gem on the top of the temple and then she yanked it out of its socket.

Once the gem was removed the entire pyramid imploded and blasted sand for dozens of yards.

Amethyst landed on the ground triumphantly and held the gem in her hands. "Got it!" She said

Everyone rushed over to her.

"Good work Amethyst." Garnet congratulated.

"Thanks." She looked to Pearl. "Hey Pearl, can you get me a pillow or something? I don't wanna risk dropping this thing."

"Alright." Pearl used her gem to summon a small red pillow for Amethyst to put the gem so it wouldn't touch the sand.

"Sweet. This thing is gonna look so cool in my room." Amethyst said.

Pearl guffawed. "Amethyst, you should really just bubble that away."

"Quit being jealous Pearl, it's my kill so I do what I want with it."

"Well… technically you only got it because I boosted you up." Onyx added. "A couple more leaps from me and I would have severed that thing from its socket and it would be mine."

"But you didn't and it isn't, so quiet." Amethyst rebutted.

Onyx groaned as well. She knew that Amethyst was a bit childish at times so she needed to look past this… as much as it annoyed her.

They went back to go get Steven, but when they came back they saw him touching the jaws of a mighty beast.

They all drew their weapons in defense. "Steven, what is that? What are you doing?" Pearl exclaimed.

Steven held up his arms. "Stop! It's okay, he's totally tame."

"That's impossible."

Onyx didn't feel like this creature was harmful, it just stood there with a calm powerful silence; it may have been pink but it was very intimidating.

"No it isn't! I taught him to say I love you, watch…" He stuck his hands in the lions mouth and made it mouth the words 'I love you'.

Amethyst seemed really fascinated by the creature. "That's so sweet, I love you to big guy."

Pearl groaned and dissipated her weapon. The lion wasn't harmful so she decided not to waste any time on it.

"Get your hand out of that things mouth. We have to get the desert glass back to the temple BEFORE some gem drops it."

"I got it." Amethyst complained.

"Let's go Steven." Garnet commanded.

And so the gems walked off while Steven said goodbye to the lion in a very heartfelt way. He joined the rest of the gems but Onyx… held back from the rest of the group.

Once Steven caught up with the gems Onyx turned around and went back to see the lion, she saw him staring at the rest of the gems and she could sense some sort of… fascination in him.

She carefully walked in front of him and leaned in a bit close. "Hey there." She said casually.

"Rawr." It said softly.

It laid down on the sand and started curling itself up.

"Aw, that's cute."

Onyx leaned down as well and put her hand on the lion's side.

"Wow, your fur is so soft." She noted. "What are you doing out here big guy? Lion's don't belong in the dessert. There's no animals for you to eat here."

He merely growled in response again.

"You're a special lion, I can tell that much." She leaned in a bit closer. "You're the thing I sensed way out in the desert. Now, as far as I know you don't have a gem on your body, so where did that energy come from?"

The lion looked up into Onyx's eyes and stared at her with a blank expression, as if to say 'I don't know'

This made Onyx smiled. "Darn it, I like you."

She got back on her feet. "Come on lion, I'm taking you with me."

It continued to stare at her with careful eyes.

"It'll be fun, and you'll get to see Steven again."

That seemed to perk up the beast as he stood up and started walking next to Onyx. She led the lion back to the warp pad and when they were both standing on it she activated it to bring them both back to the temple.

When Onyx got back Pearl and Garnet were nowhere to be seen and Amethyst and Steven seemed to be taking a nap under a pillow fort.

Silently, Onyx and lion tiptoed over to Steven's resting spot and Onyx poked him in the forehead,

"Steven…Steven, wake up." She said silently.

Steven groaned, not wanting to be woken up. "What?"

"There's someone here who really wants to see you."

Lion made a small growling noise to make himself known and when Steven heard this his eyes shot open and he looked up.

"Lion!" He said in a quiet scream. "You came all this way just to see me?"

"Sh!" Onyx whispered. She pointed at the snoring Amethyst, signaling that it would be a bad idea to wake her up.

"Right, maybe we should take this outside." Steven said.

Everyone quietly made their way out of the house and once they were outside Steven became excited again.

"This is great! Now that you're here we can do all the things that best friends do!"

He began to lead the lion down towards the beach, trying to play with it and teach it how to do tricks. It didn't work out very well as the lion seemed to be very stubborn.

Onyx simply watched over their playing with a smile, it was nice to see Steven interacting with something new.

But that lion… something about it rubbed Onyx the wrong way. She walked inside and leaned against the door as she tried to figure things out for herself.

"_I don't get it. That lion has an energy signature like the gems do, but the creature doesn't have a gem anywhere on it. Could a gem have created it? Can a gem make something that can sustain life for… I don't even know how long. Maybe…"_

Onyx's thoughts were interrupted as she heard a crack coming from above her, she looked up and saw that the nail that was holding up a portrait was coming loose. Pretty soon it fell down and Onyx caught the portrait so it wouldn't be damaged.

"That was close." She said aloud. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to you now would we?"

Onyx flipped over the portrait and started looking at it closely. She had seen this painting hanging in the house before but she had never really taken the time to look at it and appreciate its beauty. Whoever made the painting was a very skilled artist; they captured her long flowing pink hair, her elegant white dress, her gemstone…

"Wait a second…"

Onyx walked up to the temple door with the portrait in her arms, she knocked on the door to try and get the other gems attention.

"Garnet, Pearl, I have a question…" She shouted.

Soon enough the door to the temple opened, it revealed Garnet and Pearl standing in a room filled with multicolored bubbles and red line all over the walls.

"What is it Onyx?" Pearl asked.

Onyx showed them the portrait. "Who is this and why does she remind of someone?"

Pearl got wide eyed at the question and Garnet just remained her neutral self.

"Oh, we… never told you about that painting?" Pearl asked nervously.

Onyx shook her head. 'No, who is it?"

"Her name is Rose Quartz." Garnet answered. "She was the leader and founder of the crystal gems."

"Wow, really?" Onyx said in surprise. "What happened to her?"

Pearl looked at Garnet with concern in her eyes, wordlessly Garnet nodded as if to say yes to whatever Pearl was thinking about.

"Come inside. This is kind of a long story."

Onyx stepped into the temple and the door shut tight behind her. Pearl and Garnet moved towards the center of the room while Onyx set the portrait down so that she could fully pay attention to what they were saying.

"Rose was an amazing gem, perhaps the best out of all of us." Pearl began. "She was humble, a brilliant strategist, an exceptional fighter, and she had the kindest heart I had ever seen."

Then something occurred to Onyx.

"Those drawings I saw in the gem temple… there was a figure on their that looked exactly like that picture."

Garnet nodded. "Yes, during the battle with the gems Rose lead her forces to victory. She was greatly outnumbered but through determination and perseverance she led her side to victory."

"So she didn't die in that battle?"

Pearl shook her head. "No, her death was more… recent. It was about 24 years ago, Rose met a human named Greg who she… well, she loved him more than she had loved anyone before. Time went on; they got together and eventually got married. A human tradition, I didn't really understand it."

"She seemed happy, how did she end up dying?" Onyx asked.

Pearl paused for a moment, like the next part was hard to say. "Rose and Greg… wanted to have a child together. But because of their biological differences it seemed like that would be impossible. Ignoring all reason, Rode had actually managed to conceive a child and she was planned to birth him… even if it meant her own death."

Onyx gasped. To die for your own child? Truly a noble act; Onyx wished she could have met this Rose Quartz, she seemed like an exceptional gem.

"Rose gave birth to Steven, destroying her physical form in the process, and now… we have Steven to look after."

"Wow." Onyx was floored by their story. "So is Steven like Rose, or rather is Rose like Steven?"

"No." Garnet answered curtly. "He's Steven, he's his own person. He has his flaws, but he also has skills that Rose didn't have."

Onyx nodded. She could tell that she may have struck a nerve there. "Sorry, I was just curious…"

Suddenly, the whole temple began rumbling. Garnet, Pearl, and Onyx could feel the ground shaking beneath them.

"What's going on?" Pearl asked.

"It's coming from outside." Garnet responded.

They all ran out of the temple and towards the front of the house, they could see clouds forming above and pillars of sand being created from the beach.

"The desert glass!" Pearl exclaimed. "It's rebuilding it's castle. " She stared at Amethyst with frustration. "Why didn't you bubble it earlier like I told you to?"

Amethyst only shrugged. "Welcome to shrug city P."

What's worse was that Steven seemed to be caught in the middle of it. The gems needed to get him to safety, there's no telling what that thing could do.

"Don't move, we're coming!" Pearl screamed.

"Okay!"

"No Steven, run away from the killer sand castle!" Onyx screamed.

"But-"

Suddenly Steven was obscured by a wave of sand and air, he was lost inside the vortex the sand castle was creating.

"Stand in the middle of a self-constructing evil sand castle?" Onyx summoned her scythe and hopped up on the banister. "Good advice Pearl."

She jumped from the banister and prepared to go right through the wave of sand to find Steven, but before she could cross a giant wall of sand came up and smacked her back down to the ground.

"Cursed walls!"

Onyx started slashing the wall wildly with her scythe and Garnet was punching it as well, but the wall refused to break or even crack a little.

"This walls not moving!" Garnet cried out.

"We need get through before things get…"

Suddenly, Amethyst was shot up into the air by a randomly forming pillar of sand.

"Worse…"

"Hold on Amethyst." Onyx cried.

She jumped up into the air, and through the force of the twister the castle was creating, Onyx spun around the wind funnel. Then she crashed into Amethyst and grabbed her by the back of her jumper.

"I got you Amethyst!" She cried.

"That's great, but how are we going to get down?" Amethyst asked.

She was right, the force was too great for them to fall down and they were stuck in midair. They needed some way to bring them back down… then Onyx had an idea.

"Hold on Amethyst!"

Amethyst moved closer to Onyx who was concentrating on getting them down; her gem began to glow and soon enough they were enveloped in a crystal shell. The shell was so big and heavy the force of wind couldn't keep it up and so they crashed into the ground. Once they were out of the wind funnel Onyx broke the shell and climbed out.

"Any ideas for how we can get inside?" Onyx asked.

"No. Maybe we could try combining our attacks on one spot to see if that breaks the wall, or maybe…"

While they were talking there was a great blast of sand which knocked them all on their backs and buried them in sand. When they got back up they could see the castle was destroyed and Steven was sitting there holding the desert glass.

"_Once again, Steven saves the day."_ Onyx said to herself.

The gems walked over and bubbled the desert glass so that this time it couldn't reactivate.

All in all everything wrapped up quite nicely; Steven even managed to convince the gems to let Lion stay with them not only because Steven's influence is nearly undeniable but because Onyx wanted to keep this Lion around.

It clearly was no ordinary lion and if helped them later in the future than all the better… also he was really big and cuddly.

**Yeah… I kind of crapped out at the end there. I'm really sorry it took me so long to do this; I had to study for exams, get things finished up, and I was sick for a short period. But its summer now so I should have more time to write… probably (I'm waiting on a few things)**

**But don't think I was completely lazy in my absence, I've been working on some other stuff for later on in this story and for being such a patient audience I'm going to give you a little peek:**

Onyx collapsed to the ground as her scythe fell out of her hands. She lay in the crater that Sugalite made; she was beaten, she hurt more than she had when she fought Garnet, and she didn't have the will to go any further.

"I'm sorry everyone…" She said sadly to herself.

Sugalite prepared for one final strike.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst…Steven…"

She began to cry, she did not want her life to end but she didn't have the will to fight anymore.

"You were right, I'm not good enough to be one of you guys…I'm not good enough for anything."

Her eyes began to close…she didn't want to see what happens next.

"Onyx!"

Steven shouted at her, she turned her head and saw him with a megaphone in his hands, trying to reach out to her.

"You have to get up! I know you can do it!" He cheered on.

"No you don't, you don't believe in me… not since-"

"Come on Onyx! Are you going to take this lying down or are you going to fight?"

Fight? She was good at fighting…could she-

"You've always been strong, and I was scared of your strength before, but now's the time to use it!"

She felt the pain in her limbs catch fire, but the fire didn't burn in pain…it burned with energy! She felt her whole body begin to fill up with some kind of hidden power.

"Save the gems! Defeat Sugalite! Prove that you're strong… in the real way!"

Yes! Onyx wasn't going to go down like this, she was a warrior! She grabbed her scythe in both hands and used it to bring herself back up. Her pain was temporary, but this victory was going to be forever.

She stood up again and looked up at the massive Sugalite, but she didn't see her as a giant anymore, she was just an obstacle waiting to be beaten.

"What? You want some more?" Sugalite screamed at her.

"ALWAYS!" Onyx shouted back.

She closed her eyes and began to draw on all her strength; this would take everything she had so she drew from the well of frustration and anger inside herself…and turned it into power.

"Do you honestly believe you're strong? Well let me tell you the truth…YOU'RE NOTHING!"

Black crystal began to form around Onyx's hands; they created gauntlets with razor sharp claws around her fingers. Then, crystal began to grow out of her back and stretch into a shape…

"There will always be someone stronger than you, and today…"

Two crystalline wings formed on her back, the crystals were in elegant shapes that made a beautiful pattern on the wings. Onyx opened her eyes and her iris' were gone, there were only white glassy orbs now.

"I am that someone."

**Oh man! Even I had a fan attack when I read that, and I'm the one who's writing it!**

**Anyways, looking forward to Steven bomb this week and I'm going to try to work on this project at a faster rate. See ya!**


	11. What is broken can be reforged

**Me: Okay, it's 2:30 in the morning and I've worked on chapters for "Alone Together" "Too many birthdays" "Coach Steven" "Steven the Sword fighter" and "Say Uncle" that should do it…**

**Onyx chapter 11: 13% complete **

…**shit**

**So yeah I procrastinated a bunch, had a birthday recently, turned 1200 and something but whatever. Now here's the chapter you hopefully were waiting for.**

**The original "Arcade Mania" was about Steven showing the gems video games and Garnet getting addicted to one game in particular, it was later revealed that she had a 3****rd**** eye.**

**And now for something completely different…**

Onyx was gazing out into space, she was trying to figure out how to use her room's observatory function, but it was much harder than it looked. She could observe her dome that gave her an amazing view into space but she couldn't see very far or take notes of the placements of the stars.

Onyx tapped her foot against the floor impatiently. "Come on room, you've changed yourself to make me more comfortable, can't you give me something to help me see the stars?"

Suddenly, Onyx felt the ground beneath her feet shift; she stepped back and she saw a section of the floor peel away and from it rose a telescope worth golden rings and an impressive wood finish.

"Ah, that'll work."

She looked into the telescope and began moving it around to focus on another spot in the dome.

"Incredible. The placement of the stars, the planets… beautiful."

Her stargazing was interrupted by banging on her door; she answered the echoes and opened her room's door. She saw Steven standing in front of it with an excited look in his eyes.

"Onyx, we're gonna go do a secret mission! You wanna come with?"

"Steven, come on, I told you not to disturb Onyx. We can handle this mission by ourselves."

Steven nodded and jumped on the platform with the gems, they began to teleport away but Onyx wanted to join them.

"Wait a second, I can come with you, I'm good at whatever it is you're going to do."

She was too late though, the gems had already left and she was all along in the room.

Onyx gave a small sigh. "I guess if they needed me they would have said, maybe I should just-"

**Crunch!**

Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of something breaking underneath her foot, she looked down and saw that she had accidentally stepped on Steven's instrument which he had carelessly placed on the floor.

The second she realized what she had smashed Onyx began to panic. "Oh no!"

She picked up the pieces and looked at them with forlorn eyes. "I broke Steven's instrument! If he finds out he's going to be mad at me. He's never been mad at me before… I don't like the thought of that."

She placed the fragmented pieces on the couch, and then she took a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay… maybe it's not too bad. All I need is an adhesive to put it back together and a book about this instrument and I should be fine."

So Onyx went to work, she managed to find a roll of tape in the kitchen and her shelf had a book on the shape and features of various stringed instruments, one of which was a ukulele. Onyx worked carefully and tirelessly to fix the broken instrument, carefully putting each shard of wood back into its proper place and trying to stretch out the strings so they played properly.

Her efforts… did not work; in fact it was arguably worse than when she started since now it was an unidentifiable mass of wood, tape, and metal. She needed more time to figure out how to make this work.

However she didn't have more time, she saw the warp pad glow and she knew she needed to get rid of the evidence. She swept the bits of wood and glue underneath the couch just before the gems teleported into the house.

She tried to act innocent. "Hey guys! How did your mission go?"

"Great!" Steven said. "You should have seen Garnet, she was so awesome."

"I bet." Onyx turned her attention to the gems. "Um, do you mind if I talk to the gems for a second?"

"Sure. I've gotta go get something from my room anyway, I'll be right back."

Steven ran up the stairs and Onyx faced the gem with a sad look on her face. One that was very apparent.

"What's wrong Onyx?" Pearl asked.

She reached under the couch and pulled out the pieces of Steven's broken instrument. "I made a huge error."

The gems gasped.

"That's Steven's ukulele!" Pearl shout whispered. "What did you do?"

"I just stepped on it, I was too heavy and it broke. I tried to fix it but I don't know how, what do I do?"

"I know someone who can fix it." Garnet stated.

"You do?"

"Go to the edge of town, you'll find a building with the sign 'it's a wash' inside is a man who will be able to help you fix this."

Onyx nodded. "Alright, I'll be back."

Onyx took the broken pieces, put them in a bag, and ran out of the house as quickly as she could. As she ran out Steven saw her leaving and was curious.

"Where's Onyx going?" He asked.

"Out." Garnet said simply.

**Later…**

Onyx jumped from roof to roof with the bag in her fist, she searched for the building that Garnet described but had to go through several houses to find it. It took some time but she eventually found it, it was closer to the water than she thought.

In front of the building she saw a rather large looking human strumming a guitar; she jumped in front of him to get his attention.

"Excuse me sir."

Unfortunately, her sudden appearance shocked the man and he fell out of his chair in surprise.

"_Perhaps I should have learned my lesson after the first time this happened." _Onyx thought.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you, are you alright?"

The man looked up at her and his eyes went even wider.

"You're a gem!" He said surprised.

Onyx was also surprised that he knew what the gems were, not many of the humans in this town seemed to know.

He got up and gave her a look over. "Wait… are you that gem Steven keeps talking about?"

She smiled a bit that he recognized her. "Onyx, that's me alright… Steven really talks about me?"

"Oh yeah, every time he comes over he talks about you and the stuff you've done, he thinks you're really cool."

Onyx smiled as she heard that, glad that the child thought so highly of her. It made her feel…warm on the inside.

"Well… Steven's kinda the reason I'm here."

The man got panicked. "Oh no, did something happen to him?"

"No, but something happened to his instrument."

She handed the bag to him, he looked inside and recoiled at the sight.

"Oh geez this thing is really messed up, what happened?"

Onyx looked down with nervousness and shame. "I…accidently stepped onto it and broke it, then I tried to fix it and it only made things worse. I was wondering if you could help me fix it?"

He whistled. "Honestly, this thing is beyond saving at this point." He turned around and started walking away. "Luckily, I always keep a few spare instrument parts in my van. Let's see if we have enough to make him a new one."

Onyx followed him behind the building and she saw him walk up to an automotive, he opened up the back and… it was a mess. Onyx could see clothes, posters, and random items everywhere. She observed a bit closer and saw that there were several pictures of him with Steven.

"You seem to have quite a few pictures of Steven." She noted.

"Well yeah, he's only my son and all."

Onyx gasped. "You're Greg?"

Greg seemed confused. "Yeah…"

"The husband of Rose! The gems told me about you."

"Really?"

"Well… no. They told me your name and that you're Steven's father but that's pretty much it. They sent me to you to fix Steven's ukulele so that must mean you're a musician of some kind."

He chuckled. "Yep, that's me. I was kind of a rock star back in my youth and I still have a lot of my old stuff."

While they were talking he pulled out a couple of things. "Ah here we go strings and tuning heads, that's a good start. Now I need some.. oh!" He ran out of the van and towards the ocean. "I'll be right back!"

Onyx leaned against the van's exterior and watched him run off, and she couldn't help but think how much he reminded her of Steven.

She chuckled a bit at that thought. _"At least now I know where he gets it from."_

Soon enough he returned lugging a big piece of wood on his back, he set it down next to the van and started breathing heavily.

"Oh man… I am out of shape."

"What's this?" Onyx asked.

"This…" He paused "… is a block of wood that washed up on the shore a few days ago. I thought it looked cool do I dried it off and took it. We can use this for raw materials to make Steven a new ukulele."

He handed the block to Onyx and then he went back into his van. "All we had to do is cut this into a more uniform shape and then it will be perfect for…"

Greg stopped talking when he heard some energy sounds followed by slicing and the sound of wood cracking. He turned back around and saw that Onyx had cut the wood into a block that was two feet long and six inches tall. Honestly, Greg was impressed.

"Wow…" He took the block and felt the sides. "And it's relatively smooth too. How did you do that?"

Onyx stuck out her hand and it was surrounded by black crystals. "My crystals can cut through monsters. A simple block of wood is no match for me."

Greg chuckled. "Now I can see what Steven was talking about."

He put the block of wood back into the van and wiped his brow. "Well, I still need a few more materials to finish this thing up. Why don't you come back tomorrow? Business has been slow today so I can probably work on it tonight and finish it up by tomorrow afternoon."

Onyx nodded. "That sounds excellent. I'll see you tomorrow then."

And so Onyx went back to the temple, hoping that Steven would not notice that his ukulele was missing and that he wouldn't question where she had been all day.

**The next day…**

It was late afternoon when Onyx got back to the carwash, Greg was sitting in his van fiddling with his guitar when he saw Onyx walk up.

"Hey! You're back!" He said excitedly.

She nodded. "I am. Is it ready yet?"

"Yeah, I just put down a varnish and some pain so I was waiting for it to dry. Let me check on it."

He put down his guitar and went inside his van. While he was gone Onyx examined his instrument, the way he played it and the music it created… it intrigued her.

She picked up the guitar and put it in between her arms, then she started plucking at the strings. It wasn't as harmonious as Greg but it didn't sound discordant either.

"Hey… that's not bad."

She was interrupted by Greg, he seemed interested as he took the guitar from her.

"You need to work on how you space the notes, but that didn't sound too bad. You might have a talent for playing guitar with a bit of practice."

"Well I am a warrior, I do need quick hands. I didn't know that could translate to musical talent."

"It can if you practice hard enough. Who knows? Maybe someday you'll be able to play this six string better than me."

Onyx shook her head. "No, that's very unlikely."

"Anyways…" Greg reached behind himself and pulled out the new ukulele. "Here you go."

She took it from him. "Thank you very much Greg, this means a lot to me."

"Just keep helping the gems save the world and take care of my son, that's all the thanks I need."

Onyx nodded. "That I can do. Farewell."

Onyx made her leave and managed to get back to the temple pretty quickly.

She opened the door. "Hello? Anyone home?"

She put Steven's new ukulele down on the couch and examined the home, not even Steven was here.

"I guess they went out."

Onyx sat down on the couch, not really sure what to do with her free time. Then she looked to Steven's ukulele…

She picked it up and started stroking the stings, trying to see what sounded good and what didn't. Greg was right, her technique would improve if she kept practicing.

Besides, she needed a hobby and staring at far off stars didn't satisfy her. It only left her with a sense of emptiness… and dread.

**Again, I kinda suck at endings.**

**So to make up for that I wanted to go over the latest Steven bomb and go over all five episodes and say my thoughts on all of them. I'll start with the ones I liked least and work my way up:**

**5\. Rising Tides/ crashing skies- This episode was clearly meant to be a joke, it doesn't really do anything new for the plot or reveal anything to us. Honestly, I didn't think it was all that funny but it wasn't horrible.**

**4\. We need to talk- I'm all for another chance to see the majesty that is Rose Quartz, what I am not for is a jealous, angsty Pearl acting like a child and trying to push Greg out of her life because he's stealing her waifu. That kinda ruined the episode for me, but the inclusion of Rainbow Quartz and seeing the relationship develop between Rose and Greg made up for it.**

**Okay, now things get hard…**

**3\. Chile Tid- Between a reference to family comedies from the 80's, Pearl's dream of Rose, and all the creative imagery used in this episode it's hard to find a spot where I wasn't entertained. Not to mention we got to see more of Lapis and her inferiority complex, which is why she thinks she only deserves to be imprisoned at the bottom of the ocean and not saved… it's really sad when you think about it and I plan to address that later on.**

**2\. Sworn to the sword- I wanted to put this at number 1, I really did, but something better came along. Make no mistakes though this episode had everything: character development on a massive scale, satisfying action sequences, Steven summoning his shield, an absolutely beautiful and addictive song, and an introspective into the mind of Pearl. The interactions between Steven and Connie alone make this episode worth watching… but it isn't number one **

**1\. Keep it together- The SU crew has a knack for putting dark elements into their episodes but not delving too deep into it so as not to freak people out… this is the king of that trend. Garnet experiences forced fusion, we see her get scared at the abominations before her, we see her two halves divided and speaking as separate entities, and we even saw her almost un-fuse because she was so horrified at what she was seeing. This is honestly the darkest SU episode to date and it sends shivers down my spine whenever I watch it.**

**It's going to be a hell of a ride in the next Steven bomb, and I look forward to seeing you all then.**


	12. Unseen forces, unforeseen progress

**Another Steven Bomb, another chapter comes out to greet it.**

**Let's see, how am I going to do an episode that introduces the concept of fusion without piggybacking on the development of Pearl and Amethyst and without stealing the spotlight from the other characters or directly copying the plot?**

… **I have no idea!**

"Okay, let's do this." Onyx said to herself.

She created a crystal totem in front of herself, and then she reared back and punched the totem as hard as she could. The force of her blow caused it to shatter into dozens of fragments and scatter across the floor.

Unfortunately, this isn't what she wanted. Onyx had trained her muscles a lot recently and she could definitely feel herself getting stronger and faster so she decided that instead of working on her physical strength she would start working on the strength of her crystal shards.

She could throw them precisely, she could create some crystal around her extremities, and she was able to generate crystal on a surface from her hands or feet, but they usually broke under great force. Onyx tried to see if she could create a crystal strong enough that she couldn't break it but so far she had no such luck.

She summoned another crystal totem and prepared to punch it again. She charged at the thing and once again she cracked into dozens of pieces.

Her hand hurt from doing it, but the crystal still shattered.

"I need these things to be stronger! Why can't I make them stronger?" She said to herself.

Deciding that she had enough frustration for one day she started walking towards the temple door.

"Stupid crystals with their stupid breakable form, all I want is-"

**THWACK!**

"Ow!" Onyx shouted as she felt something hit her hard in the back of the head. She turned around to see what hit her but when she looked down all she saw was another one of her crystals.

She picked it up and examined it, trying to see if there was something that she was missing.

"How did that happen? I didn't throw it and no one else is in here."

She decided that it probably wasn't worth thinking about and so she opened up the temple door and stepped outside.

She saw the four crystal gems talking amongst themselves and Garnet seemed to have something over her visor, Onyx couldn't identify what it was.

"Hey guys, am I missing something?" She asked.

"Nope, Garnet's going on a solo mission and Pearl's got a stick up her butt. All is normal." Amethyst replied.

Onyx chuckled at her commentary as Pearl stared at Amethyst annoyed.

"That sounds painful." Onyx said.

Pearl groaned. "It's an expression; it means that Amethyst is confusing maturity with boringness."

"Nope, that's just you being you."

Pearl groaned again, Onyx could feel how frustrated she was getting.

"We're going to retrieve the heaven and earth beetles. I'm going to retrieve the earth beetle located in a lava lake near the earth's core, Steven Amethyst and Pearl are going to retrieve the heaven beetle at the top of the sky spire."

"Should I tag along?" Onyx asked.

"No, I'm the only one strong enough to survive lava and the three of them should be enough to get the beetle."

Hearing this disheartened Onyx a little bit.

"However… I do have another task that I think you'll be able to do by yourself."

That brought Onyx's spirits back up. "Alright! What can I do?"

"There's a gem monster in a cavern to the northeast. It's difficult for us to track but I think you'd be perfect finding it and brining its gem back to the temple."

Onyx nodded. "I can definitely do that."

She walked up to the platform and stood on the warp pad.

"We have a warp pad right outside so you won't have to travel far. But if you can't find the monster make sure you tell us, it could be a serious danger."

Onyx nodded. "Understood, Onyx out."

She surrounded herself in the warp pad's bright glow and was whisked away to her far off destination.

When she landed she was on a high up cliff, she was overlooking vast expanse of deep blue sea and right behind her there was an entrance to the cave that Garnet had mentioned. Onyx made her way inside and began to search.

The cave was dark so Onyx needed to use the light from her gem to illuminate her surroundings, but not only was the area dark it was eerily quiet; she couldn't even sense any gem energies. Wherever this monster is that Garnet described it was either gone or it really didn't want to make itself known.

Onyx went through the cave as deep as she could, because it was so dark that it was hard to tell where she had been before and where she hadn't explored yet. It made searching very difficult, but she persevered.

She had been walking around for at least an hour now but she hadn't seen anything. Taking a moment to rest, Onyx leaned up against one of the stone walls.

"_I don't get it. There are no gem creatures here, I can't sense any monster, and there are no signs that anything lived in this cave either. What am I supposed to be looking for?"_

Suddenly Onyx felt something drop on her shoulder; she looked at it and was some sort of green liquid. It dropped from… the ceiling; she looked up to see if something was there but was just met with more darkness.

The only thing that gave Onyx any indication that something was here was when she a stream of something attach itself to her and start pulling her up. She struggled in its grip but this material wouldn't budge; she was forced to summon her scythe and cleave it off.

She dropped back onto the ground with a bit of a thud and landed in a crouched and ready stance.

"_Why am I getting hit by things I can't see today? What even was that?"_

Deciding not to take any chances, Onyx kept her scythe close and started walking around cautiously.

"_If there's a gem monster here I should be able to sense it… why can't I sense it?"_

If only she could see this entire cavern, maybe it wouldn't be so hard. Onyx had to articulate her body so that she could use her gem as a flashlight to scan the walls for signs of the monster that attacked her.

Then as she scanned one of the walls she was only a foot away from what had attacked her on the ceiling: it was a crystal spider monster, with a sickly yellow body, eight spiky legs, and four large reflective eyes. It roared at her and Onyx could see the gem in its mouth.

Frightened by the monsters sudden appearance, Onyx back flipped away from that monstrosity. Then she threw some crystal shards at it to see if that would do some damage.

"_It was right in front of me, how can I not feel it?"_

Her thoughts were interrupted by an evil hiss and through her limited light she could see the spider jumping at her, Onyx rolled to the side then tried to slice into the spider's hide to end this fight. She put all her strength into it but her blade just seemed to bounce off.

She growled. "Why won't you stupid things die!"

Her gem glowed brighter and she shot a torrent of crystal shards at the spider, but all they did is bounce off harmlessly.

Once the spider was done defending itself it jumped on top of Onyx and had her pinned to the ground, it had some kind of shell around it that was extremely heavy. Onyx couldn't even reach her weapon to try and get this thing.

The spider opened its jaws and moved menacingly closer, Onyx turned her head to the side unsure of what to do and tried to think of something, anything that could save her.

And then her hopes were answered, the roaring of the spider monster stopped and its jaws didn't move any closer to Onyx's head. Curious what happened Onyx faced the beast and saw that there was a gem shard that went through the back of its head and poked the gem out of its mouth.

Onyx pulled the gem out of its mouth and then its whole body dissipated and that crystal shard fell to the ground.

Onyx picked up the spiders gem and the shard that had impaled it.

"_This is a shard I created, just like back in my room. It hit me in the back of the head when I got angry and now this one came to save me when I was in danger. I wonder…"_

Onyx concentrated really hard and she could see the gem shard lift a bit, then when she stopped concentrating it fell back into her hand.

"_I can control my gem shards! Maybe this will come in handy in the future."_

With her mission completed, Onyx managed to find her way out of the cave and back to the warp pad. When she got back home she saw that the sun was beginning to set and the house was empty.

"_I guess no one is back from their missions yet."_

Then she looked down at the gem she had captured.

"_What am I going to do with you? Whenever the gems capture one of you they place you in a bubble. I wonder if I can do that?"_

Onyx put her hands around the gemstone and focused her hardest to try and create a bubble, but all that happened was the gemstone was surrounded in her onyx crystal shell.

Onyx shrugged. "Close enough."

She placed the gem on the counter top and then laid down on the couch, her eyes began to flutter between open and closed. She hadn't rested in a couple of days, perhaps she deserved one now.

**Later…**

Onyx awoke from her rest as she heard the warp pad activate, she opened her eyes but she only saw Steven and another gem who was much taller than even Garnet.

"Who is that?" Onyx asked out loud.

"Opal…" Garnet answered, just as surprised herself. "What a pleasant surprise. How was your mission to get the heaven beetle?"

The amazon known as Opal gasped. "I don't have it!"

Then her body glowed with gem energy and whole body began to ripple and loose shape. When it couldn't hold itself together any longer the form split and it spit out the forms of Amethyst and Peal.

That really took Onyx by surprise. "That gem was Pearl and Amethyst?"

"Yeah!" Steven replied excitedly. He jumped down from the e platform to talk to Onyx "They fused into a giant woman, and they killed a giant bird to save me. It was so cool!"

Now that the room had calmed down everyone was starting to go off on their own directions.

"Come on Steven, it's time for bed." Pearl said.

They both went off somewhere while Amethyst walked up to Onyx.

"Hey Onyx, you got a minute?" Amethyst asked.

She nodded. "Of course, what's up?"

"Well…you seemed like you missed out on a great adventure today so I thought you might like to hear about what we did."

Onyx smiled. "Sure, that sounds nice."

Amethyst led Onyx to the temple and then she opened up the door to her room. This was the first time Onyx had ever been in Amethyst's room so imagine her surprise when she saw the piles and piles of stuff all over the place. There was no order to the mass of garbage piles.

"What is all this?" Onyx asked.

Amethyst shrugged. "Just some stuff I've collected since we came here to Earth, no big deal."

There was so much to tackle here Onyx decided to just ignore it. Instead she decided to address the original elephant in the room; Amethyst wasn't very good at hiding her true emotions.

"So… you wanna hear about my day?" Amethyst asked.

"You just want an excuse to talk about Pearl don't you?" Onyx said coyly.

Amethyst groaned. "You knew?"

Onyx tapped on her gem. "I had a hunch. But I said I would listen and I will; so please, tell me what's wrong with Pearl?"

Amethyst lay against one of her piles and began to talk. "Where do I start? Recently Pearl decided to become a total butt. I mean she was serious before, dedicated, but now she's taken it to a really extreme degree; it's like all she cares about is a super high standard that she put herself to and none of the rest of us even matter."

Onyx nodded. "I see."

"She keeps trying to make us part of her perfect world or push us to the side, but… it's just not like that. Things aren't perfect, they might even be great, but they are good; I just don't see why she insists on trying to control everything."

"Maybe she's just trying to look out for you guys?" Onyx suggested.

Amethyst snorted. "Please, there's only one person that Pearl cares about pleasing: Rose."

Onyx was confused. "But… Rose is gone."

"Well Pearl sure as heck doesn't act like it, she's still tries to be Rose's little attack dog, she's loyal to the point of being ignorant and if something comes by that she doesn't like she snarls at it until it goes away."

Onyx thought about all that Amethyst had said. Her words definitely had merit to them; she hadn't known Pearl for very long, but she was easily her least favorite of the four gems. They constantly budded heads about ideas

"I suppose all you can do for now is try to get Pearl to see things in a different perspective and try to get her to act differently, but don't push her too hard or she may go back to a safe places."

Amethyst sighed. "I suppose." She got up off her pile and started walking around a bit. "Thanks for the chat; it's nice to talk to someone about this instead of just kinda letting it fester."

"No problem. Just trying to be helpful."

"Well then…" Amethyst's gem glowed and she summoned her whip.

Onyx wasn't paying much attention, but when Amethyst raised her arm in the air Onyx rolled out of the way before she came down on her head with her whip.

Once she safely dodged she was confused. "What was that Amethyst?"

"You said that if I needed to talk you would be my listener and my sparring partner. You listened-" Amethyst stretched the whip in her hands. "Now get ready to spar."

Onyx chuckled slightly. "Alright, I'm in a good mood so I'll indulge you. I won't even use my weapon."

"Your funeral."

Amethyst tried to attack Onyx again, but her attacks were too wide and Onyx found easy to duck or dodge them. Then Amethyst took a different route and curled up for what looked like a rolling spin dash, instead of dodging this attack Onyx ran towards it and punched it square on the top which caused Amethyst to tumble down.

She got back up quickly to keep going but Onyx began pelting her with crystal shards, they didn't hurt her very much though. When it looked like she was done Onyx clenched her fist and large mass of crystals formed and smacked Amethyst in the back of the head.

"How did you do that?" She asked, while gripping the back of head.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Onyx charged at Amethyst, giving her no time to prepare with a whip attack, so Amethyst dropped her whip to the ground and when Onyx came close enough she gripped her fists in her hands and both gems began pushing against each other to fight for dominance.

"Give it up Amethyst; you should know by now that I don't give up easily."

Amethyst smirked, cocky as ever. "Oh yeah? Well you should know that I can pretty scrappy when I want to."

They were both very strong and it seemed like neither would get an advantage over the other, so they broke away and prepared to punch each other but since they had the same thought their fists met against each other again and again.

But the strangest thing was that as they matched each other's blows their bodies were surrounded by a bright white light unknown by either fighter, it all culminated when with one final punch their whole bodies converted to light and all you could see was their gems.

The masses of light moved closer together and it looked like they were going to combine for a second, but before that could happen they repelled each other and both Amethyst and Onyx's bodies reformed themselves.

Both gems felt very thrown by the reaction and rubbed their heads from the impact.

"What just happened?" Onyx asked.

Amethysts eyes were wide as she realized what happened. "We almost fused…"

"What?"

"We were fighting and somehow we almost fused together. I… I don't believe it."

Amethyst started spacing out a little bit, thinking about how this could be. Sensing an imbalance in her fellow gem Onyx walked up to her and tried to talk it out.

"Is this normal? Is fusion normally easy?"

Amethyst shook her head. "Not really. When I fuse with Pearl it's really hard because we're never on the same page and she forces me to play by her rules. When I fuse with Garnet it's better but I also feel like I'm… unstable, like it's great but things get too wild. That was the easiest it's ever been for me."

Onyx was lost. "I don't know much of anything about fusion so I don't really know what to make of this. Any idea why it would be so easy?"

Amethyst shook her head. The two gems were silent for a time, just standing there in thought until finally Amethyst broke the silence.

"Hey, I kinda wanted to get some rest so…"

"Oh I understand, I'll give you some space."

"Thanks."

Onyx began to walk towards the temple door, but then she turned back and looked at Amethyst.

"Hey Amethyst…"

Amethyst looked at her with curious eyes.

Onyx gave her a thumbs up. "You're doing great out there, keep it up."

Amethyst gave a shy smile and then repeated the gesture, then she went her own way and headed deeper into her cluttered room.

Onyx stepped outside the temple and when the door closed behind her she leaned against it and exhaled.

"_Another day, another mystery that I have no clue how to solve."_

**And that just about wraps everything up and leaves you with more questions to ask. What could possibly cause fusion to be easy for them that didn't need to dance? Believe me when I say that is a convoluted answer.**

**See you all next week after Sardonyx week.**

**I have to say though I am really upset that they are putting in a character called Sardonyx, I had plans involving a character with that name. They were going to be… whoops spoilers!**


	13. Age is what we make of it

Onyx was in the middle of the room, doing handstand pushups and trying to keep her mind focused on one singular aspect of the room. It had worked well so far as she was currently up to 37 pushups, unfortunately the gems came walking by and her concentration was disturbed.

"Onyx, do you smell something?" Pearl asked.

"Not at the moment, I-" Suddenly, Onyx took a deep whiff of the air through her nose and there was indeed a smell; something severely foul to the point where it knocked her to the ground. "Whoa… that's terrible."

"I know!" Pearl screamed. "The whole temple reeks this morning, even the house smells bad. We have no idea where the smell is coming from."

"I have an idea." Garnet said. She looked down at Amethyst who didn't seem to be paying attention to the situation.

"What?" She asked cluelessly.

"You accumulate the most junk; it would make sense that you would be the cause of this…disgusting odor." Pearl said

Amethyst groaned. "Fine, if it'll make you feel better we'll check my room."

They all walked to the temple and Amethyst opened up the door to her room, revealing huge piles or various junk items with no pattern in sight.

"How can you live like this?" Pearl asked in confusion.

"It was fine until you started whining about it."

"Whining? The whole temple reeks!"

"It is pretty bad Amethyst." Onyx admitted.

"Pff, whatever."

"I found it!" Steven cried.

He pulled out some kind of silver metal tube; the smell on it was so bad you could literally see stink lines appearing above it.

"What matter of magical alloy is this?" Pearl asked.

Steven peeled the metal back and it exploded with more stink.

"It's a burrito." Garnet answered.

Onyx had a burrito once when Steven brought some back, but she suspected none of them were supposed to smell like that.

Amethyst picked it up and examined it. "Oh yeah, it's my tuna burrito from Aqua Mexican."

"Didn't that place close… 5 years ago?" Steven asked.

Amethyst shrugged it off and took a bite of the burrito anyway, making everyone sick to their stomachs.

As Amethyst ate the toxic burrito Steven looked at her junk (pile) and saw something that interested him.

"Hey, what's this?" He pulled out a picture that looked like Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, and Rose sailing on a boat; Garnet was punching a shark and they all seemed to be dressed in clothes that originated in the late 18th century or early 19th century.

"Oh Steven! That's a picture of us and your mother." Pearl answered. "I remember that day fondly."

"The hard part was getting the shark to pose." Garnet added.

Onyx looked at the picture, it was very nice. "You seem like the kind of person who would punch a shark Garnet."

Garnet gave one of her small smiles at this.

"Wait… why are you dressed like old timey people?" Steven asked.

Pearl picked up the picture. "Well those clothes were in style back then."

Steven had a look of realization on his face. "So…that means…" He started counting out on his fingers but couldn't quite reach it. "How old are you guys?"

"Much older than any human." Pearl thought about it. "I'm actually not sure how old we are exactly."

"I lost count after 6,000 years." Garnet admitted.

"Six thousand!" Steven said in shock.

Onyx nodded along. "I suppose since gems don't have physical bodies they can't age like humans do. So as long as their gems stay intact… they could live for an incredibly long time."

Pearl nodded along. "Right. But we're not immortal; we could still get hurt and die."

Amethyst clutched at her stomach, her whole body had turned green and she fell to the floor and started moaning.

Onyx looked at the ground concerned. "We can't die from food poisoning right?"

"Nope."

"Good."

Steven was still excited by this whole ordeal. "I can't believe you guys are like a bazillion years old. How do you get a cake big enough for all those candles?"

Pearl and Garnet looked at each other. "We don't…celebrate birthdays."

Steven gasped in surprise. "Why not?"

"We just don't. It isn't our way."

"Well not anymore it's not. I promise that you will have the best birthdays ever. With all the cake, candy, and ice cream you've been denied!"

That sounded good to Onyx, Steven's dedication to their happiness made her happy… that is until Amethyst threw up on the floor right next to her.

"Amethyst, try not to get any of that on my shoes." Onyx asked nicely.

"Ughhhh." Amethyst replied.

Steven ran out of the temple and towards the beach leaving the rest of the gems in the dust.

"So… what happens next?" Onyx asked.

"Usually we just wait around until Steven's ready for us in one of his big plans." Garnet added.

Onyx nodded. "Okay, so we'll all do our own thing and then Steven should be ready for us in… 20 minutes?"

"25 minutes." Pearl corrected. "Sometimes it takes him a while to get things ready."

"Fair enough."

**30 minutes later…**

Onyx stepped out of her room and saw the rest of the gems still lounging about.

"I assume Steven isn't back yet?"

Pearl nodded. "No, but he should be-"

"Guys!" Steven burst through the door and got everyone's attention. "Come outside, I've got something for you."

They all followed Steven onto the beach and they were greeted with a picnic table that had various snakes and cake on it, also three fold out chairs and what appeared to be a throne.

"Who gets to sit in the throne?" Onyx asked.

"The first birthday queen is…"

Steven snapped a cape onto Amethyst and then led her to the throne and sat her down, then he put a crown on her head. "Amethyst!"

Amethyst observed her accessories and didn't really like them, Onyx could tell that much, but it made Steven happy and that was the important thing.

"I hope you like it, dad made this for me and every year it brings me special birthday luck."

He pulled out a microphone and began singing into it: "It might as well be your birthday, so why don't we have a party? Even if you're ages old and your body's an illusion…"

Then Lion appeared, but he wasn't wearing his party hat so Steven had to fix it and that threw off his rhythm.

"Um Steven…" Pearl interrupted. "I know you put a lot of effort into… all of this, but don't you think we're a tad mature for all this?"

"Nnope." Amethyst answered.

Then she put the pointy party hat on her face to mimic Pearl's nose, and then she poked Pearl in the nose with her fake nose.

That infuriated Pearl while it made Onyx break out into chuckles.

"Take that off right now!" Pearl asked.

"Wait!" Steven said trying to break up their bickering. He handed Amethyst a bat with a ribbon attached to it. "Here."

Amethyst took the bat and smiled at it. "Aw thanks, I'll use it every day."

She raised it up into the air to hit Pearl over the head with it but Steven stopped her.

"No! It's for the piñata."

He pointed above to a multi colored donkey looking statue, it appeared to made out of simple paper and cardboard. Steven took this piñata, put it on a stick with a string attached, and hung it over Amethyst for her to hit.

"Now we put the blindfold on…"

He wrapped cloth around her eyes and then she began swinging wildly at it.

"What is this piñata Steven?" Onyx asked

"Well, it's an ancient artifact from Aqua-Mexico, they used it for…"

Steven's story was interrupted as Amethyst almost swung the bat and hit him. Steven panicked and ran away from Amethyst, then he there the piñata up into the air so she wouldn't follow him; unfortunately Onyx was the one who caught it.

As Amethyst got closer Onyx prepared herself to get out of the way of her attacks.

"Am I…"

She swung the bat downwards and Onyx side stepped the attack.

"Getting…"

Then she went for a side swiped and Onyx blocked it with the arm that she wasn't using to hold up the piñata.

"Close?"

Then Amethyst did another strike, but from the other side and it hit Onyx in her stomach. She buckled a bit because Amethyst was using tons of strength to try and hit this piñata and the blow really hurt her.

"Higher…" She wheezed out.

Then Amethyst peeked from under her blindfold and hit the piñata so hard that it flew into the ocean.

"Whew! That was fun Steven, what's next?"

"Well, you were supposed to get delicious candy when you broke it open."

Amethyst seemed hurt by that. "Wait… you had candy and you didn't just give it to us?"

"I'm more curious about how you hit that hard enough to launch it dozens of feet and yet it didn't break." Onyx said.

"Don't worry, there's plenty more good times to come!" Steven promised.

And he wasn't wrong, Steven tried his hardest to make the gems have a good time but they wither didn't understand what he was trying to do or they just didn't want to be part of it. Onyx tried her hardest to be supportive but it wasn't enough to override the negativity of 3 gems (especially Pearl, she was the least happy about all this.)

All the festivities ended on a rather sour note, Garnet and Pearl were convinced these festivities were only meant for human children, and even Steven was questioning how fun they actually were. He walked off despondently near the end and the gems went back to the temple as if nothing was wrong.

Onyx looked out the window of the house as she sat on the sofa and thought about how things could have been different.

"_Why wouldn't they give Steven's thing a chance? It seemed fun in its own right."_ She adjusted her seating so now she was hanging upside down on the couch. _"Perhaps they just didn't like it because of their traditions and concepts as gems."_

Onyx stared at her hands like they had some kind of answer hidden in them _"I mean I'm just a blank slate, I didn't grow up learning any of the same lessons they did… I wonder if old me was like that?"_

Amethyst and the rest of the gems walked out of the temple and saw Onyx staring into space in a seemingly uncomfortable position, Amethyst walked up to her to see what was happening.

"Sup Onyx?" She asked.

"Just thinking about how the weather outside parallels the mood of today."

"Oh come on, I don't think it was that bad." Pearl said.

"Not that bad?" Onyx flipped herself around so that now she was crouching on the ground. "You explicitly said Steven's activities were not fun and for young children."

"They were!" Pearl defended.

"But you don't have to tell him that. It's like how we don't tell you your nose makes you look like a bird."

Pearl scrunched her eyebrows. "What?"

"Amethyst told me that once, but did I say it to your face? No. We just… subtly make fun of you for it.

"Or not so subtly, like today." Amethyst said with a cackle.

Pearl was still angry about that but she exhaled and let it go. "Look, everyone needs to learn to move on-"

Amethyst scoffed. "Pfft, like you know anything about moving on."

"Quiet!" Pearl shouted. "In any case, we need to clean up the supplies Steven left outside."

"If cleaning up is involved why is Amethyst here?"

"Because there was cake outside, and it will be MINE!" She said voraciously.

Onyx just shrugged it off. "Alright I suppose… you want some help?"

"Sure."

The gem walked down to the beach and began putting things away as the fog began to role in. Pearl folded up the table, Amethyst ate everything that was previously on the table, Onyx folded up the chairs and Garnet collected all of the balloons.

"You know Steven was right, this is fun."

"Only you would find cleaning fun Pearl." Amethyst added.

Onyx observed as Garnet was still wearing the birthday clothes Steven had brought out.

"Why are you still wearing those Garnet?"

"I like it, it makes me feel… important."

"Well since that was the purpose of it I suppose it works."

As they were cleaning they could hear the growl of Lion approaching.

"Hey Lion's he-" Onyx noticed him drop something, specifically someone, out of his moth. "Who is that?"

"Steven!" Pearl shouted.

"What!"

They all rushed towards the older Steven and kneeled by his side, Amethyst was holding up his head.

"What's wrong with him?" Pearl asked.

"He's okay. He's just really really really really really old is all."

"How did this happen?" Onyx asked aloud.

"I don't know but…" Pearl began to get chocked up. "Humans die of old age, if Steven gets too old he'll…"

"Can't we fix him?" Amethyst asked.

"My birthday suit… might help." He said in a hoarse voice.

Garnet immediately took it off and placed it on Steven… but it had no effect.

"It's… not working." Onyx said softly.

"Thanks guys… but I think this suit is all out of birthday magic. Well… we had a good run…"

The gems were silent, several holding back massive amounts of tears. They wouldn't let Steven go, they refused to, he had such a long life ahead of him. He couldn't…

"More birthdays…NOW!" Garnet said with force and urgency.

The gems scattered around trying to find something that would work.

"Hey Steven, check it out!" Amethyst said. She had shape shifted into a tiny car. "I'm a tiny car!'

"Beep beep."

"Kids…stuff." Steven said as his beard got longer.

This wasn't working, Onyx had an idea and created a small block of crystal, then she made a jagged piece and started cutting into it to make a carving.

"Piñata time!" Amethyst said in a jovial tone.

It still wasn't working. She hoped she had enough time to finish this or…

"Oh no, I have… what appears to be a delicious pie… I sure hope nothing bad happens to… happens to…" Pearl couldn't take the tension anymore and she began to break down crying. "Oh Steven…"

"Are you trying to kill him faster?" Amethyst asked.

Onyx had enough, she got in the middle of this situation and put her foot down.

"No one is dying today, do you hear me?" She nearly shouted at the other gem.

"Well then what are we going to do? Because I sure as heck don't see you coming up with any ideas!"

Amethyst was shouting, it looked like she was angry but Onyx could sense the driving force behind all of them: fear. It was loud and it was fierce and it dominated all of their actions, they were sad and trying their best to hold it together… but it wasn't working.

Wordlessly Garnet stepped forward and picked up the aging Steven, then she did the unthinkable and began shaking him.

"Garnet!"

They all ran up her and tried to pull her away from Steven but she wouldn't budge.

"Garnet, let Steven go right now!" Onyx screamed.

But Garnet did not pull Steven down until she was finished shaking him.

"I thought… violence would be the answer."

Then Onyx felt something inside of her snap. "Violence… VIOLENCE? YOU THOUGHT HURTING YOUR KIN WOULD HELP IT!"

Her breathing became ragged and both Amethyst and Pearl looked at her with worried eyes.

"Onyx… you need to calm down."

"NO! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULTS!"

"Our faults?"

"STEVEN WAS FINE BEFORE! BUT THEN YOU UPSET HIM AND NOW HE'S DYING!"

"But, but… we didn't know."

Onyx clenched her fists so tight she could feel her fingers piercing her hand.

"If he doesn't pull through from this, so help me…"

"Would you guys please…"

Onyx's rant was interrupted as she heard Steven talk again; they looked down at him and saw that he was surrounded in a pink glow from his gem. He began to move around a little bit then he lifted the cape off him and he rapidly changed from an incredibly old man to a much younger but still adult man.

"Control yourselves!" He said in a deep commanding voice.

The gems looked at him with relief and shock and they were just glad he wasn't going to die.

"S-Steven…" Onyx said almost wordlessly.

Steven's expression changed from serious to worry to panic, like he had made a serious mistake. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to yell."

Steven then became even younger; it looked like he was close to his original age.

"But I can't stand to see you guys freaking out like this."

Then he turned back into his adult stage.

"What?" Pearl questioned.

"Steven, you're changing!" Garnet shouted.

"Your age is fluctuating with your state of mind." Pearl added.

"Stop feeling old!" Amethyst shouted.

"But I wasted your time! We all have such little time."

His age began to revert back to its old man state and all the gems got worried that he would age himself to death again.

"Steven, you need to think like yourself! The kind, sweet, considerate boy who's only obnoxious some of the time."

His became more youthful again. "You really think I'm all that?"

"Of course!" Amethyst shouted. "Why else would you throw us all those parties?"

"Yeah…"

Then Steven finally did it, he changed back into his original form. "I am pretty great aren't I?"

When everyone saw that Steven had turned back to normal they swarmed him and they all wrapped him in a giant loving hug.

"You're the best Steven." Onyx said.

Slowly everyone pulled away. "It's good to have you back buddy." Amethyst said.

"Come on, let's all go inside, we can… work on the rest tomorrow." Garnet added.

Steven was confused until he looked down and saw that he still had the legs of a fully grown adult male.

"Okay Steven, this shouldn't be too hard." Onyx said. "Just think of yourself, being you, but slightly shorter than Amethyst."

Steven nodded, then he closed his eyes and scrunched up his face until finally he was surrounded in a pink glow again and he was back to his old height.

"Let's go." Pearl said.

They all began walking back to the temple but Onyx hung back with Steven.

"Hey Steven…"

"Yeah?"

"I got something for you."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out an object she tossed into Steven's hands, it was a small black crystalline idol that resembled Steven (but just barely)

"On birthday's you're supposed to receive gifts, consider that your gift for your birthday."

Steven seemed pleased by the gesture. "Thanks… but my birthday isn't for a long time."

"Well then how about this: you tell me whenever it gets close to your birthday and I'll make you another idol like that one, but better. And I'll keep making them again and again until I make one that's perfect. Deal?"

Steven nodded. "Deal."

Onyx was glad that Steven seemed happy with her gesture, but honestly he totally deserved it. She realized in that one moment how much Steven meant to her…

She was ready to kill the gems because of him.

**My god… Steven bomb 3. Honestly at this point it's an art and the SU crew just keeps making these things bigger, better, and more dramatic. Allow me to demonstrate with my opinions on each episode, going from worst to best:**

**5\. Historical friction- Once again the comedy episode makes it to the bottom of the list, but this time I really have nothing to complain about. I'm an avid actor myself and I LOVED how Jamie and Steven played off each other during the performance they put on and their little one liners made it absolutely adorable. Plus, we get to see Steven getting smarter, always a plus for me.**

**4\. Onion Friend- "Hey look it's Onion… no one's favorite character." Is the first thing I thought when I saw the title card for this episode, and the episode only proved that Onion is a disturbing little brat who doesn't act nicely by choice. However, the show was completely stolen by the return of Vidalia and her friendship with Amethyst. That concept alone was cute enough to make me forgive all the other faults with this episode but then it hit me: Amethyst has a friend… who isn't a gem. That's huge! The gems always seemed so disinterested and aloof when it came to humanity so to see one of them actually make a real friendship with someone is incredible and totally makes it worthy of this spot.**

**3\. Friend Ship- Good emotional development, breathtaking atmosphere, fantastic action scenes, and a Steven stepping up to his responsibilities as a gem… yeah this episode was a great package. The overlying plot finally comes to a satisfying conclusion and Pearl acts… vulnerable and really sorry for her actions, a far cry from her normal attitude. This episode would have been in the top two, but there was one thing that held it back… Peridot. She is about 20 times more annoying in this episode than she has ever been, I hated her before and I wanted her dead but after this episode I wanted to cut her into pieces and kill her before she even has a chance to regenerate… oh I have big plans for her.**

**2\. Cry for help- Steven bomb 3 opened with this episode, and man did it open up HARD! This episode has a lot of great things going for it: a brand new fusion we've never seen before, character development that isn't completely obvious, keeping an unsure atmosphere, and the fact that the problem of the episode doesn't just disappear but carries over into the next episode and affects the whole rest of the Steven Bomb. The show specifically referenced that only in cartoons could a problem just resolve itself, they're treating this like real life and I think that's really amazing. However, this episode is not my favorite for two reasons. The first is that much like "We need to talk" the problem is centered around Pearl's bitchiness but this one was about betrayal and it cut deep. The second is that Sardonyx herself… isn't that great; she seems cocky and overconfident but in a way that's annoying not endearing, also she looks like a magician but does no magic and that's disappointing to me.**

**1\. Keystone Motel- I'm just gonna say this right now, the fandom went crazy over 1½ minutes of Ruby and Sapphire, imagine what a whole episode will do to it, well you don't have to imagine that because this is it. This… this is how you create a real relationship between characters in cartoons; Ruby and Sapphire are nowhere near perfect in this episode, in fact they seem like polar opposites: Ruby is brash and emotion driven, Sapphire is aloof and driven by predestination, they are literally fire and ice (Literally!) but every second they were on the screen they were enjoyable, sweet, and passionate. That's what a real relationship is people, it can be as weird and crazy as you want it to be so long as you can make it work.**

**Although this does raise one question: If Ruby has fire powers and Sapphire has ice powers… why have neither of those things carried over into Garnet's powers? Unless the fusion somehow cancels them out.**


	14. That one Echosmith song

Today, Onyx was going to practice her jumping. She stood outside the house on the beach and jumped up as high as she could, but she only made it a little above the house itself.

She came back down with a loud thud. "Come on Onyx, you can get higher than that."

She put more effort into her jump this time and went even higher; making it up to the chest area of the statue that adorned the front of the temple.

This time she came back down with even more force. "Alright! Let's see if I can reach the face."

Onyx crouched down, built tension in her legs, and made a massive leap that made a small boom sound of air displacing around her. She sailed higher and higher and made it to the chin of the statue before coming back down. As she fell she could see the gems starting to walk out of the house.

"Hi guys!" She screamed.

They looked up and saw her falling; they were worried for a second but then they realized she would be fine.

When Onyx came down she pounded the ground and created a shockwave that dispersed the force of her fall and most of the sand where she landed.

"Are we headed somewhere?" She asked.

"We need to check on something, do you want to come along?" Pearl asked.

Onyx nodded. "Sure."

The team went off into the more natural section of Beach City, it was on some kind of mountainous region. The gems soon reached their destination: Dead Man's Mouth, some kind of swamp like crater in the ground with vegetation growing in the center.

"This doesn't look good at all." Pearl said.

"I don't see what's so bad about it." Onyx admitted.

Curious, Steven jumped down to try and investigate the moss. But the gems seemed very adamant of him doing that, so much so in fact that when Steven got down there Garnet threw a massive rock in his direction; thankfully it didn't hurt him but rather acted like a huge counterbalance that propelled him upward.

"Steven's here." He said

"You need to be more careful Steven." Pearl said.

"Why?" He asked.

He didn't have to wait for an answer though as the moss started moving around and began to devour anything that was inside its little hole.

"What is that stuff?"

"It's the moss Rose Quartz raised on the hill." Garnet answered.

"My mom raised this stuff?" Steven asked.

"Yes." Pearl created a projection with her gem showing Rose up on the hill. "Rose used to climb that hill every year and tend to the moss. But without her… here, the moss is on the move."

"It's lost." Steven said sympathetically.

"It's not lost, it's gross." Amethyst said.

Onyx just shrugged. "I wouldn't exactly call it pretty, but I wouldn't exactly call it ugly either."

"Rose loved the moss regardless; she saw the beauty in everything no matter how gross. Either way, I know exactly what to do in this situation."

Pearl struck a pose and began to make noises… Onyx honestly didn't know what to call it. It wasn't screaming, it wasn't shouting, it wasn't excited or angry, but it was annoying. Then after some overly indulgent movements she summoned… a roll of tape from her gem.

"Well that was anti-climactic." Onyx said disappointingly.

"Is that police tape?" Steven asked.

Pearl nodded. "This way we can keep the humans away from the moss without having to use magic."

"_But what's stopping the moss from moving on its own?"_ Onyx asked herself internally. She was trying to be better about questioning every decision Pearl made but it wasn't easy.

The gang went to work tying things up; Garnet and Amethyst covered a wide area with the tape, Steven wrapped it around one rock multiple times, Onyx tried to cover up the sides so no one could get around the barrier, and Pearl created a big bow near the entrance which served as a pleasant image and a big barrier.

"There. Now the moss won't disturb anyone while we come up with a plan to move it safely to the hill." Pearl said.

So she didn't have a plan after all.

"Well, now that that's over, who wants to get some lunch?" Steven asked.

The gems looked mostly uninterested, but Onyx was still curious about most of the food that Earth had to offer so she was willing to try some.

She raised her hand slowly and Steven took her opinion into account.

"Anyone else?"

The rest of the gems were silent.

"Just us then…nice. Okay, let's go."

Steven started walking off and Onyx followed behind him.

"Make sure he stays out of trouble." Pearl asked her.

Onyx nodded. "Of course."

Onyx followed Steven back into Beach City and soon the two were walking down the board walk.

"So what are we going to get?" Onyx asked.

"I'm thinking pizza."

"What are the components of pizza?"

"Well… it's bread, cheese, sauce, and whatever you want for toppings. It's pretty much the best food ever."

"It certainly sounds interesting."

As they walked along Steven began humming to himself about Pizza. Onyx figured that if he kept talking about it then it must at least be decent. But when they got close to the pizza place Onyx noticed something peculiar

"Hey… is that Lars?"

When she pointed it out Steven looked and realized that it was indeed Lars.

"Lars!" He called out to him.

From a distance Lars did not seem happy to see them, at least that's what Onyx thought she saw, and when Steven tried to high five Lars he rejected it. Onyx didn't know much about human customs, but she had been taught that when someone offers you a high five you take it, and don't leave them hanging.

"So why aren't you at the Big Donut?" Onyx asked.

Lars scoffed. "I don't spend my whole life at work you know, I do… other things."

"Like being lazy and obnoxious to people?" Onyx replied sarcastically.

"Or standing against this wall?" Steven added, missing the purpose of her comment.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Lars asked, exasperated.

"…nothing."

"And that's the plan Steven, just playing it cool today."

"We are so much alike."

Lars seemed confused by that statement. "Excuse me?"

"I get it, you want to get a fresh pizza right out of the over but you're too afraid to ask. Well there's nothing to be afraid of, just go over there and ask them."

But Lars seemed like he didn't want Steven to go in there. "No Steven! Don't go in there!"

Steven didn't go in, but he did notice something interesting. He peered through the window and saw three teenagers sitting together and talking of things that Onyx had no idea about.

"Isn't that Kiki's sister and her friends?" Steven asked.

"Who are they?" Onyx asked.

Steven clarified. "Well Kiki works in this pizza place and so does her sister, but… I can't remember her name…"

"Jenny, Buck Dewey, and Sour Cream." Lars finished.

"Oh, you know them?" Steven asked.

"Not quite, but I'm sure we'll hang out at some point." Lars said nervously.

Onyx nodded a bit and understood what was going on.

"I see… it's just like happened with you and Connie, Steven."

Both Steven and Lars looked up at Onyx confused. "What?"

"Steven, you never talked to Connie because you were nervous to. Lars must also be nervous about talking to these kids."

Lars scoffed and tried to play that off. "No, that's not it at all."

"Then why don't you go talk to them?" Steven asked.

"Because that's not how these things work! I have to keep it cool and wait for them to come to me."

The door to the pizza parlor opened.

"Well here they come."

"Ah! Steven quick, turn around and look natural."

Onyx didn't see why Lars was so nervous about these humans; they looked average (at least by her standard for humans) so what was it about them that caused him to be like this? Perhaps the problem was not with the kids but with Lars.

"I don't think they saw you."

Lars grunted. "Well that's because you were blocking me with your… big hair."

"But Steven's shorter than you." Onyx added.

"Sorry. I'll go tell them to look over here."

Steven walked off to talk to the other kids and Onyx followed to make sure that he wouldn't get into any trouble. Steven, being the un-bashful person that he was, walked straight up to the group and raised his hand in the air for a high five.

"Hi! My name's Steven."

The kids looked curious why he was talking to them but they each granted him his high five request.

"Buck Dewey."

"They call me Sour cream."

"I'm Jenny."

Steven seemed excited to meet them.

"So I get that you're Steven…" Jenny said, then pointed to Onyx. "But who are you?"

Onyx realized she had yet to introduce herself. "Oh! My name's Onyx, I'm a crystal gem and I fight monsters."

"Whoa, really?" Sour Scream asked.

Both Steven and Onyx nodded their heads.

Buck smiled. "That's pretty cool."

"So, what are you doing here Steven?" Jenny asked.

"Well I have this friend over there…" he pointed back to the pizza shop,. "His name is Lars. Lars! Hey Lars, over here!" He turned back around. "He's shy."

"What does he want?" Sour cream asked.

"Well he thinks you guys are cool and he wants to hang out, but he doesn't know how to ask you."

The kids thought about this for a moment and then all nodded.

"Okay."

"Really?" Onyx asked.

"Yeah. We're going out for a drive. You guys should come with us, it'd be really cool."

Steven nodded. "Cool, I'll go over there and tell him."

Steven walked back over to Lars. "Hey Lars!"

"Yo." He replied forcefully.

"We got invited along for a ride!"

Lars seemed flabbergasted. 'What? But…you… and I…Steven, you got lucky. So don't mess this up with one of your lame acts?"

"You got it."

Steve walked towards their new friends but when Lars tried to walk there he was held back by Onyx.

"Lars, could you also do me a favor?" She asked somewhat sweetly.

He seemed a bit unnerved by her tone. "Um…sure?"

"Please try and be nicer to Steven…" Her eyes glared at him and her voice became deeper. "Or you may find yourself in a great deal of pain."

Her voice returned back to normal. "Do we understand each other?"

"Yeah! Completely!" He said nervously.

The second she let Lars go he ran off towards the car.

"Hop on in guys." Jenny invited.

The group tried to all climb in the car; Jenny was driving, Sour Cream was riding shotgun, and Buck Steven and Onyx were sitting in the back.

"Hey Onyx, where did you get that wicked top?" He asked.

She looked down at her sleeveless body suit.

"I have no idea. I just… had it."

Buck nodded. "Yeah, living free, I can respect that."

When Lars came to the car he tried to squeeze himself in but it was very tight.

"Will you guys move?" He asked.

"I don't think there's any more room." Steven said.

"Well then make some room."

Onyx groaned, knowing that it would be much easier to just get out of the car and let Lars take her place.

When she got out Lars shut the door behind him and gave her a smirk.

"Aw too bad, guess you can't come with us." Lars said in a snarky attitude.

He may have thought he had her beat but Onyx just smirked. "It's alright, I'll just ride next to you guys."

All the kids up front looked at her confusingly. "Umm… this car can go like 60 miles per hour. You think you can keep up?"

Onyx smirked and then nodded. Her whole body was bathed in light as she transformed in front of the car, the kids were in awe as her body shrunk and grew four legs as she turned into a cheetah.

"This is a cheetah; it can run at around 75 miles per hour. Do you think you will be able to keep up?"

Jenny and Sour Cream were still surprised at her magical abilities.

"Whoa…" jenny said.

"Nice cat." Sour Cream added.

"Alright then, let's hit it!"

Jenny started up the car and as it drove off Onyx ran beside it.

The group didn't seem to have any particular destination and instead just drove around town looking at various things. While they were driving they had a couple of short conversations and from what Onyx had gathered… these kids were alright. Lars kept trying to act 'cool' for them, but if these kids really are cool then Lars' definition of cool is completely wrong.

Onyx had to admit… she liked this bunch. They were honest and open and not jerks (a far cry from Lars)

While they were driving they came across someone in particular.

"Hey Buck, isn't that your dad?' jenny pointed out.

They saw him giving some kind of press conference about him being a mayor.

"Your dad's the mayor?" Onyx asked.

"Yeah. It's pretty lame." Buck added.

"Well he does seem to be in the spotlight a lot. If you were brought into that same spotlight I can see how that would be 'lame'." Onyx hoped she was using that term correctly.

Buck chuckled a bit. "Yeah. Glad to see you get it."

"Oh my gosh you guys! We should check out Dead Man's Mouth." Jenny suggested.

"What's that?" Steven asked.

"It's a lake where some dude died… or maybe it looks like a mouth? I forget the details, but it's definitely cool."

And so they changed course and drove out to Dead man's mouth. It was quite a bit out of the way of the city and it stretched into rural areas.

"_Wait… I think I've been here before."_ Onyx thought to herself.

Everyone got out of the car and Onyx transformed back into her humanoid form. As they walked closer to Dead Man's Mouth Steven and Onyx saw something very familiar… the police tape.

"Onyx… that's the tape we set up this morning." Steven whispered to her.

"I know."

"What are we going to do?"

"I…don't know."

The group looked at the barrier and saw that it was police tape.

"_Let's hope that they know they shouldn't cross a police barrier."_ Onyx thought to herself.

Then the boys pushed the barrier aside and walked through anyway.

"_Okay… so they know it, but they don't care. This might make things bad." _

"Who wants to go for a swim?" Jenny suggested.

"_And now it's way worse."_

Before they could get in the water Onyx stepped in front of them and tried to stop them.

"Please, don't go in that water, it's dangerous." She asked

Jenny didn't look convinced. "What? You trying to scare us?"

"It builds an atmosphere… I appreciate that."

They ignored her and jumped into the water anyway.

Onyx didn't know what to do. If she pulled the kids out or yelled at them they would just ignore her or worse turn against her, she needed a way to convince them to get out of that water.

But it was too late, once they were in the water the moss began to surround them an once it attached itself to their bodies it dragged them under the water.

"Kids!"

Onyx jumped in and tried to pull them all out before the moss swallowed them up, she slung one of the kids over her shoulder but she had to fight to pull the other two out; this moss really didn't want to give up its victims. But her strength proved enough and once she ripped them out of its grasp she tossed them onto the shore.

They were a bit deprived of breath but all seemed fine… until the moss that was on them started to grow at a rapid pace and eventually swallowed them up.

"Ah!" The rest of them cried out.

Onyx looked at herself and noticed she had gotten some on her hand to, it started crawling up her arm and tried to cover her body.

"Oh no you don't!"

She concentrated and gem shards began growing out of her arms, it displaced the moss for a moment but then it just made its way around the spikes. Ally she mashed her arm against the ground to get all the moss off her at once and then she encased the moss on the ground in a crystal dome so it wouldn't get out.

She was safe... but the other three kids weren't. They tried to pull the moss off of them but it multiplied too fast and it just kept growing. It seemed like a pointless effort.

"It's no good, the moss just keeps growing back!" Onyx said exasperated.

Steven seemed glum about the situation but then he had an idea.

"Lars, I know what we need to-"

"No! This is all your fault! He said accusingly. "I knew if something went wrong today it was going to be because of you. Now I'll never get to know these guys and it's all because of you and your…weird mom!"

That struck a chord with Onyx, she was about to step forward and confront him about it but Steven beat her to the punch a put a finger on his chest.

"What do you know about my mom… I didn't even get to know my mom!"

Onyx could feel the emotion coming from these comments; it was unlike what she had seen in Steven before.

"But I do know that she saw beauty in everything, even in stuff like this… and even in jerks like you."

Onyx stepped forward. "We need to hurry. These kids can't survive long if they're unable to breathe."

"We'll take them to the hill. Help me put them in the car." Steven asked.

They dragged all of the mossy bodies and put them in the back of the car. As they did this, Onyx realized something.

"Steven… some of it got on your leg."

He looked down and saw that she was right.

"We need to hurry. Lars, take us to the top of the hill."

"But… I don't know how to drive a stick shift."

"Then I'll work the stick and you just keep up on the road.

"Right. Ignition!"

"Stick power!"

The trio drove the car towards the hill as fast as they could, but their technique was sloppy and chaotic and they tried to stay in the car without flying out.

As they drove the moss began to cover their car more and more and it had almost completely overtaken the back half, Onyx tried to fight it off but it was relentless.

They made it to the hill, the trio dragged the moss covered teens up the hill and to the top, where the moss became so heavy that they collapsed. When they stopped moving the moss swallowed them all up and all they could see was darkness.

They stayed in that silence for a full minute before they felt something happen, the moss began to loosen, slowly disintegrating and flying off their bodies. When they got up they could see the moss turning into some kind of flower buds.

"The moss…was just trying to bloom."

Flower petals flew all through the air and Onyx grabbed one and examined it. Beautiful pink flowers with a crystal bud in the center, the flowers certainly matched the planter.

As everyone was recovering from their frightening event Onyx looked at Lars with a sense of disapproval, he picked up quickly on it and began to look nervous.

"Lars, it's clear Steven is not your friend…" she began. "… but it appears that you are Steven's friend, and for the moment that's good enough for me."

Lars sighed with relief and rubbed sweat off his face. "Thanks."

Just keep in mind…" She put a hand on his shoulder. "… how easy it would be for me to shove you off this cliff."

He gulped. "Duly noted."

**And that's the end of that chapter.**

**This chapter kind of took longer to write because… well I found it to be a bit boring. But I also had to stop working on this project for a while because… I had a dream.**

**I saw Onyx in my dreams and I watched events play out in my mind of what the future holds. At first it was good, but then things got…bad.**

Onyx felt like she was slapped as she woke up from her uncomfortable slumber, her eyes had little time to adjust to the blinding light around her and the ungodly amount of green that painted the walls and ceilings. When her eyes decided not to hurt anymore and began to focus she could see Peridot and Jasper standing in front of her.

She immediately got angry again. "You two…"

She tried to get up and attack them but she found herself bound by metal bands around her legs and arms. Now that she realized it, she was on some kind of table being suspended upwards.

Jasper chuckled at her. "That's right, us." Jasper began walking around her. "Look I'll be honest: you're little stand against us was really cute. But now you're beaten and you've got nothing left to lose, so please answer this question for me…" She put her hand on Onyx's face and looked at her maliciously. "Who the hell are you?"

Onyx growled. "If you let me out of these cuffs I'm gonna be the gem who FUCKING MURDERS YOU!"

Jasper stepped back, clearly dissatisfied with her answer. She motioned to Peridot. "Hit her."

Onyx readied herself for some kind of blow, but it never came. Instead Peridot used her finger terminal and suddenly her bed buzzed with energy… and then there was pain. Pain beyond imagining, electricity that shocked her to her very core, and made every molecule in her body burn.

"AAAAGH!" She screamed. It was all she could do; this was a pain that could not be suffered quietly.

It ended, not soon enough for her liking, and she could see visible lines of smoke coming from her body.

Jasper only stood there with a shit eating grin on her face. "You like that? Peridot here managed to recreate the deconstruction process of the separator's by a very large percentage. It means the process takes longer and is…very painful."

Onyx breathed heavily, still trying to recover from the previous shocking.

"You don't have anything left, you're little dirt ball will be gone soon enough so why don't you just tell me what I want to know?"

Onyx pulled at her bonds trying to break free. "GO TO HELL! I won't sell out my home, not to you and especially not to the Yellow Diamond's!"

Jasper merely crossed her arms. "Wrong answer."

Peridot turned on the machine again and the pain was so great that Onyx didn't know how she was still holding on. She wanted to quit, she wanted to make this pain go away more than anything in the universe…

Once the pain had stopped Onyx was breathing heavily again, she had to stick together, she had to.

Jasper smiled at her. "I'm impressed; any other gem probably would have retreated into their stone by now."

Peridot looked down at her panel again, Onyx was afraid she was going to shock her again but she moved her fingers away from it. "I think I liked you better when you were unconscious. You're lucky that I'm above brutish things like torture."

Peridot walked away from the scene, leaving the room. Once she was gone Jasper walked forward and Onyx as hard as she could in the chest.

"I'm not."

By itself that would hurt a lot, but combined with the cellular deconstruction she was subjected to before it felt about a million times worse.

"When we get back to Homeworld I bet the higher ups there are just gonna love you." She heard Jasper say.

Soon enough consciousness seemed too hard to sustain and Onyx's eyes dropped.

**That excerpt was based on a nightmare I had, I could literally feels the shocks in my body. Turns out that it was just the pajamas I was wearing rubbing up against my blanket creating a static charge, but the pain felt… vivid. I wrote down pretty much everything I could remember about it and then filled in the rest later that day.**

**Naturally that freaked me out a little bit so I backed away from writing for a little while, but I'm back on track now and I've got a very wicked surprise in store for you all.**


	15. Defect: Part 1

**You might be noticing that I skipped "Onion trade" well there's a very good reason for that…. I hated it. I couldn't think of a single creative thing to do and there's no way that if Onyx was there she would let Steven give the replicator to that demonic child. So I'm just going to skip it and pretend it never happened.**

**Now then, this chapter may get a bit shocking and convoluted so brace yourself…**

It was a nice quiet night in Beach city, it was raining outside so the crystal gems decided to stay in and watch a movie with Steven. They let him pick what they would watch and he chose one about human warriors called "Lonely Blade IV"

Onyx enjoyed the movie, there was plenty of action and although they spoke in a different language there were subtitles to help her understand what was going on.

"Oh lonely blade, you're so lonely." Steven admired.

Onyx reached over for some popcorn. "It's the sad truth of being a warrior, it's a lonely life." She munched on some more of the popcorn and watched as the janitor revealed himself to be the main villain.

"What? The janitor was the evil samurai president all along?" Steven said in shock and surprise.

"Oh come on, it was so obvious. He was mopping every fight scene." Pearl pointed out.

Onyx shrugged. "I thought that was just a coincidence. Like how there were wires on their bodies whenever they preform incredible feats of combat prowess."

Pearl sighed and continued watching the movie. Steven was excited as the warriors continued to pull of outrageous moves.

"Yeah! Use the boomerang blade again!"

"Come on, that's not even a real sword technique!" Pearl exclaimed.

Garnet shushed her, wanting to watch the movie in silence.

"All I'm saying is if you want to see a real demonstration of sword technique you only have to ask me."

Steven looked up at Pearl with wonder and excitement. It appeared that he was extremely excited to learn sword fighting.

"What…now?" Pearl asked.

Steven nodded, seeming like he wanted to get started as early as possible.

"Well… I suppose."

Pearl got up from her spot on the floor.

"Oh I've gotta see this." Amethyst admitted, getting up from the bed.

"I'm interested to see how this plays out." Onyx said getting up from her seat as well.

Garnet got up, placing the popcorn bowl on the bed. "If everyone else is getting up I might as well."

Steven's irises turned into stars. "Great! Let's get started."

"We can use the training ground inside the temple." Onyx suggested. "Garnet and I used it to train me and it works pretty well."

Pearl nodded. "It might work… but I have someplace better in mind."

They all walked to the temple door and Pearl opened it up with her gem, when the door opened they were in Pearl's room. Onyx was curious why they were here, but Pearl walked forward, got two swords from her collection and then stepped out of the room with the door closing behind her.

Then Pearl made her way to the warp pad and stepped on. Everyone else followed suit and soon enough they were all whisked away to their location.

When they arrived they seemed to be on some kind of stone arena, but the peculiar thing was that they seemed to be surrounded by clouds.

"What is this place?" Onyx asked.

"This is the sky temple." Garnet responded. "It holds a lot of emotional value to Pearl and was used to train gems back during the beginning of the war. She learned a lot about combat here."

They all walked inside the area, and sat down on the outer ring while Pearl walked to the center and began preparing.

"Alright, in order to give a proper demonstration I'm going to need a sparring partner."

Steven began to raise his hand.

"Put your hand down Steven." Garnet asked.

And then Steven put his hand back down.

"Luckily I have the perfect candidate right here."

Pearl spun around in place and used her gem to create a hologram of herself.

"_Well that's…egotistical."_ Onyx thought to herself.

"Do you wish to engage in combat?" The holo Pearl asked in a very robotic tone.

"Let this be the perfect battle."

Pearl tossed her hologram a saber and she caught it. "You've already made a mistake by challenging me."

"Ha! We shall let our swords decide."

"Nerds!" Amethyst shouted.

Everyone shushed her, excited to see this battle take place.

Both the Pearls got into a fighting stance; they looked graceful but light on their feet. The air of hostility was palpable…and exciting.

"Commencing duel!" Holo Pearl shouted.

Both Pearls charged at each other with their swords ready to slice the other in half, they clashed blades and danced around each other in a deadly duet. They were agile, they were strong, they had technique, they were…boring.

They didn't duel for very long, not even 5 minutes, and when it was over they both acted very calm and collected. Pearl wasn't even tired, how can you practice technique if you aren't pushed?

Onyx stood up with her arms crossed. "Okay, I call foul."

Pearl and holo Pearl turned to her with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Onyx walked up and pointed at the hologram. "You can only learn so much from fighting a clone of yourself." She punched the clone in the forehead causing it to shatter into dozens of pieces. "If you know your own skillset you can anticipate the attacks. You need to fight something more…unpredictable."

"What are you implying?" Pearl asked hesitantly.

Onyx picked up the sword from the ground, then she pointed it at Pearl. "Challenge me Pearl."

Pearl smiled a bit to herself before opening her mouth in a big toothy grin, it was obvious she wanted to laugh but wouldn't so as not to hurt feelings. "What?"

"You heard me, I want a chance to prove my skill to you and I want to see if you're truly as tough as you appear."

Pearl shrugged. "Okay…" Pearl backed up and got into her fighting stance. "But don't expect to beat me."

Onyx brandished her sword. "Always expect the unexpected."

The two stood face to face, this time Onyx was more excited than when she was watching the action as she thought she had something to prove.

"Fight!" Onyx yelled

Onyx charged at Pearl just like her hologram had, but instead of extending for a stab when she got close enough she spun around for a back handed slice. Pearl had managed to block it and then when Onyx came in for an attack on the other side she blocked that one to, soon enough the two were slashing at each other in a fairly even duel.

Steven and the others were watching with excitement.

"Umm… I don't know who to cheer for!" Steven wondered.

Now Onyx and Pearl had their swords pressed up to one another, pushing each other for dominance.

Pearl grinned through her gritted teeth. "You're not bad, but you're technique has several flaws."

That comment made Onyx angry. "Flaws? I'll show you flaws!"

Onyx back flipped to get some distance between her and Pearl, then she charged at her with all her force. Pearl blocked the blow but the force caused a large reverberation of air around then and she could feel Pearl buckle under her weight.

Onyx's slashes became wild and forceful, but they were big and obvious that Pearl could see them coming. Finally, Onyx threw her sword up into the air; Pearl was confused and tried to attack Onyx but she ducked her few quick slashes. Then Onyx stepped on Pearl's foot and while she was distracted she jumped back into the air and grabbed her sword.

Onyx was ready to come down on Pearl and end this in one strong un-blockable slice, unfortunately Pearl took advantage of her situation and when Onyx was close enough she did a back flip that got her close enough to Onyx to give her a slash in the chest, ending the match.

Onyx fell to the ground and felt the mark it left on her body, it didn't hurt more than a paper cut but it hurt her pride more than getting impaled completely.

As Pearl twirled her sword she looked at Onyx on the ground. "That was flaw number three; you leave yourself too open when you're not attacking."

She was ready to let this match go, but then Pearl had to flaunt her dominance once again, she had to prove that she was right and make you feel stupid when you were wrong. That ignited a fire in Onyx's belly and she got up from the floor with a hated look in her eyes.

"Wait!" She said angrily.

Pearl turned around. "What is it now?"

Onyx threw her sword to the ground. "You've probably used a sword for centuries now and I've barely gotten a chance to master my scythe. I say if you want to make this fair…" Onyx summoned her scythe from her gem and brandished it. "Let's fight with our own weapons."

Pearl groaned. "Is this really necessary?"

Onyx threw a shard of crystal at her and Pearl summoned her spear to block it instinctively. Onyx had a sly grin on her face with a darker expression hidden underneath.

"I suppose it is then."

Onyx stood still this time; she would wait for Pearl to come to her. Pearl made the first move by throwing her spear at Onyx and then when she blocked Pearl dashes forward to close the distance. She summoned another spear and tried to slice Onyx but she managed to block it, she blocked her blows again and again and the two stepped back during their struggle.

Onyx broke the pattern by stabbing the handle of her scythe into the ground and swinging around it like a pole to kick Pearl in the face as hard as she could. That attack caused her to roll back a few feet and did some damage to her.

"Where's your confidence now Pearl?" Onyx said, a grin beginning to form on her face.

"Right… here!" Pearl replied.

She pointed her spear at Onyx and started firing laser blasts, Onyx countered by summoning more gem shards. When the laser blasts hit the gem shards they destroyed each other, so the battlefield became a torrent of glows and the small explosions from the impact of the two projectiles. Soon enough the explosions created a cloud of dust that surrounded the two fighters and the onlookers couldn't see what was happening.

"Is… is it over?" Steven asked.

The dust settled and the two were charging at each other one last time, everything seemed the same as before except this time Onyx was summoning crystal onto her hand inconspicuously; the entire event culminated when the crystal shot up her arm and turned into an armored gauntlet and then when she got close enough she punched Pearl in the stomach as hard as she could and lifted her up in the air while still balanced on her fist.

Onyx could hear Pearl's sounds of pain… and it satisfied her to no end.

But her moment of victory was cut short when the hand that held Pearl's spear tightened and when Onyx wasn't paying attention she could feel the spear cut into her side. The wound caused her to lose her grip on Pearl and when Pearl fell down she knocked her spear into Onyx's leg's so she fell to the ground; before she could get up she pointed her spearhead at Onyx's neck as if you say 'get up and I end you'

"Let this be a lesson to you…" Pearl said with gritted teeth. "Never challenge me, you'll never win. You'll never be worthy…"

Between Pearl defeating her, her harsh words, and the cut Onyx had in her side her breathing became shallow; she could feel something well up in her chest and she could feel a static energy rush to her fingers.

All she could see was red and she acted on an instinct that she felt deep inside her.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

No one saw it coming, it happened within a second with deadly and chaotic force like a lighting strike. Onyx grabbed her scythe and rose up incredibly quickly and with one clean slice… she was down.

Pearl's body poofed and her gem fell to the ground and hit the hard stone floor, the rest of the gems looked at her with shock. Onyx was still breathing heavily and her pupils had disappeared leaving just blank globes in the place of her eyes.

When her irises returned Onyx's brain caught up to what she had done… and she was mortified. She couldn't move, her weapon dissipated out of her hands, and she could only stare at the gemstone on the ground.

Steven walked up slowly with tears in his eyes; he picked up Pearl's gem and just stared at it, not knowing what to say

Onyx could feel the magnitude of her action in Steven's eyes, she could see the pain that she was causing him and she could feel the amount of pain he was experiencing through his gem… it sickened her to her core and she wondered how she even came to do this in the first place.

She wanted to make up for her actions, she had to.

"Steven…"

She moved closer to try and condole Steven.

"Go away…" Steven said silently, his eyes staring at the ground.

"What?"

Then Steven looked up and Onyx saw a fire in his eyes that burned hotter than she had ever seen before.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

Onyx cringed, not knowing how to respond.

"You killed Pearl! She never did anything to you! She looked after you! Now she's gone and we'll never see her again!"

Onyx backed up, she couldn't stay here, after all this has happened she would be lucky not to get killed on the spot.

Garnet rose up to try and calm him down. "Steven, listen-"

"No! I'll never forgive you for this! Never!"

And those last few words broke Onyx's heart more than any wound ever could. She turned around and started sprinting to get away from there as fast as possible.

"Onyx wait!" Garnet cried out.

Onyx reached the edge of the sky temple and instead of turning around… she jumped off. She fell through the clouds and down to the ground below at incredible speeds. She could see the vast blue expanses grow closer and closer as she continued to fall.

She contemplated whether she should even try to save herself, whether she should just let gravity take its course and see if the impact was enough to shatter her into a million pieces. Of course, who would being dead help? No one.

Before Onyx hit the blue expanse below her she transformed herself into a simple falcon and extended her wings to slow down her fall, then when she wasn't slowing down enough she started flapping them until she was only a few feet from hitting the water and she was able to keep herself elevated.

"_Okay, I'm not dead. Whether that's a blessing or a curse remains to be seen."_

Onyx looked around, but all she could see was expanding ocean going out for miles.

"_Where am I? Where was that temple? More importantly, where can I find some dry land from here? I can't keep flapping these wings forever."_

Onyx decided to just pick a direction and start flying straight, she figured that she would hit land eventually and then she would figure out how to get home from there. She felt drawn in a certain direction so she thought that traveling that way couldn't make things worse.

It took flying for hours on end, more hours than she cared to count, before she came across some a beach where she could collapse and transform back to human form.

"Arms… too tired." She said in pain.

She slowly got herself off the ground and examined where she had washed up. All she could see in front of her was a dense forest and as she walked through it she could see no man-made structures.

She wanted to keep examining this place but she was tired… so very tired. She leaned against a tree and passed out, needing some kind of escape from her day.

When she opened her eyes again she was surrounded by darkness on all sides with no shapes or any other items in sight; this was her dreamscape, a place that she had seen dozens of times during her stay on Earth.

What she was not used to was waking up kneeling on the ground and unable to move her arms. She tried to tug and break free but her arms seemed to be stuck to the ground, unwilling to move.

"_Commencing experiment…"_

What? That voice came in as little more than a whisper, it seemed so far away but… familiar. Then she felt a searing light in her arm and when she looked down she could see her arm was starting to disintegrate.

"What?" She exclaimed in horror.

She tried to pull away but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't move, she was forced to sit there and feel the pain of being taken apart. And all she can hear is more of those malicious whispers-

"_Failure…"_

"_Not desired effect…"_

"_Worthless…"_

"_Not worthy…"_

"No!" Onyx screamed. "Let me out of here! LET ME OUUUUUUT!"

Onyx woke with a start, she felt all along her body to make sure that it was just a dream; she was relieved to find that it was. She didn't know how long she was out but her body felt better so she had no reason to stick around here.

She got up and continued her walking around this island as she wracked her brain about her previous dream.

"_Another one of those nightmares. The last time this happened I remembered the rest of my race, so what's the purpose of this one? What do memories of torture have to do with anything?"_

Then she stopped and realized what she said.

"_For that matter… why was I tortured in the first place? What had I done? Am I just a terrible being destined to inflict nothing but pain?"_

She looked down at her hands.

"_Am I just some sort of monster?"_

As she continued on she felt a certain buzzing in the back of her skull, like it was pointing her in a direction. She walked forward and she found something that made her whole journey a bit easier: a warp pad.

At first she was happy to see this device, but her grin quickly turned to a frown.

"_Teleporting right in the middle of the house isn't a good idea, they might be waiting for me to return. I need to go somewhere else."_

She stepped on the teleporter.

"_But where else do I have to go?"_

She activated the pad and as she whisked through the warp stream she final came to a stop at the place she had inadvertently chose, the only other warp spot that she teleported from herself… the crevice in the ground.

As soon as she stepped onto this hallowed ground, the memories of that day came back to her. She didn't want to remember those events, she wanted to bury them deep within her subconscious and never think about them again but she couldn't help but feel they were important.

"_Maybe that's why they wanted me dead… because I was a threat to them."_

Onyx clenched her fist; she could feel her drive returning and a plan forming in her head.

"_Then I'll cut the problem off at the source! If I can't go home, I can at least learn to control this anger."_

And that began with taking her anger and learning from it. First, she walked up to a boulder that was at least as big as she was; then she tried to recreate the conditions that caused her to lash out like that.

She searched deep inside for those voices, the ones that told her she wasn't good enough:

"_A failure…_

"_Not desired…"_

"_No use…"_

Her anger peaked and with one solid right punch she cracked the boulder in half with smaller crack lines on the edge of both halves of the stone. When Onyx got out of that state of anger she realized… her hand really hurt! She shook it to try and make the hurt go away but it wasn't happening.

"_I seem to lose sense of myself when I get angry like that, perhaps that's why I didn't realize what I had done until it was over."_

Onyx used her crystal creation powers to make a light crystalline glove to protect her hand from further damage. With her hand protected she moved on to the next step and summoned her scythe.

She practiced her technique for hours, if she didn't want to give in to her rage on the battlefield she needed to handle herself better and take control of a situation without resorting to getting angry. She pushed herself to practice harder and harder for hours and by the time night had fallen she had improved drastically; she felt faster, stronger, and more agile.

But next came the part that she wasn't looking forward to: the confrontation. She needed to face the gems again and explain that what happened was a mistake, and if necessary she needed to make sure that they didn't want to destroy her or come looking for her.

She waited until night so that way the odds were less likely for her to be seen and she planned to use the warp pad to return back home and wait for the gems to return and do with her what they will. It wasn't ideal, but if she was going to be a problem in the future it might be better to get that out of the way now.

She stepped on the warp pad and teleported back to the house, it was night there as well so the gems were in the temple and Steven was fast asleep, thank goodness the sound of the warp didn't wake him up.

As Onyx creped through the house, she silently opened the door and walked down to the beach; from there she could see Lion laying underneath the support beams for the home.

Interested to see her friend again she walked up to greet him.

"Hello Lion."

"Rrrr." Lion gave a low growl, acknowledging her presence but without much emotion.

"Sorry you haven't seen me around for a while, I've been… busy."

Lion looked up at her with his curious eyes.

"Well I'll tell you."

And so she started talking to Lion about everything that happened to her. She wasn't sure if Lion could understand her struggle, but she had to admit that she was doing it more for her sake than his; talking things out seemed to help her think.

"I don't want to leave here Lion, I can't think of anywhere else I would go. Not to mention I wouldn't want to leave all the friends I've made here: You, Greg, Amethyst, garnet… Steven."

Lion gave a low growl, as if to say 'go on'

"I really hurt him Lion, and that's something I would never want to do. He's… such a sweet child; filled with so much potential and a heart bigger than I can imagine." She sighed. "I don't think there's any space for me in that heart of his anymore."

Lion curled himself up and started to doze off.

"You're right Lion, staying up worrying about it won't do me any good." Onyx adjusted her body so that her had was laying on Lion's soft underbelly; the big cat didn't seem to mind it and in fact he even seemed to move a bit closer to the gem as she started to lose consciousness.

"Thanks for listening Lion."


	16. Defect: part 2

**You guys… thank you so much. I got so much positive support from the last chapter and so many people reacted just as I hoped they would. You have no idea how much your support means to me. I promise to keep making this story as great as I possibly can.**

**Sorry I couldn't get this up sooner, but I couldn't access any of my chapters or even get into my profile. It was really frustrating.**

Onyx's rest was interrupted by a splash of cold water; this startled both her and Lion and while Onyx jumped to her feet Lion started to growl in annoyance at whatever threw the water at them.

When Onyx's eyes were fully opened and focused she saw Garnet holding a bucket and standing next to her was Amethyst.

"I told you she would be here." Garnet admitted.

"Yeah, you did say that… two and half days ago." Amethyst said in a low tone.

Two and a half days? Had she really been gone that long?

Onyx sighed. "Well, you've found me..." She kneeled on the ground and bowed her head to them. "Make it quick."

They both seemed confused about that. "What?"

"I have killed Pearl, I cannot be trusted. If you see it fit to kill me then all I ask is that you do so quickly and painlessly."

Amethyst walked up to her, she brought Onyx's head up so that they were looking at each other in the eyes… and then she slapped Onyx across the face so hard it knocked her over.

"What the heck are you talking about? You didn't kill Pearl!"

That got Onyx's attention. "What?"

"She's regenerating… you moron."

Onyx rubbed the side of her face where Amethyst hit her as she got up off the ground. "What does regenerate mean?"

"You said yourself that gems don't have physical bodies…" Garnet explained. "When a gem takes too much damage their body is destroyed, but their mind stays inside their gemstone until a new body is constructed."

Then everything came together in Onyx's mind. "So… that means…"

Garnet nodded. "Pearl is fine. She's just resting."

Onyx put her hands to her face and exhaled, she had been so worried that she had done irreparable damage to the group but to hear that Pearl wasn't gone from the world forever… it softened the blow.

"I should go."

Garnet walked off and went back inside the house, leaving Amethyst and Onyx alone.

Onyx looked a bit more hopeful about this whole situation but Amethyst changed that attitude by giving Onyx a kick to the legs, it wasn't with the same strength she would use to hit a monster but it wasn't just a playful swat either.

Onyx hopped on one leg in pain due to her injury. "Ow. Okay I can see you're still angry at me."

Amethyst crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm not angry at you… at least, not because of Pearl."

"Huh?"

"Pearl has a tendency to go too far sometimes and when you two fought that was definitely one of those times. She said something to you; I don't know what it was but I'm guessing if it caused you to go feral on her it wasn't very nice."

"So… you understand?"

"I guess. What I don't understand is… why did you jump?"

"I…"

Amethyst started to shake a bit. "We were all caught up in that moment; it took us a second to even realize what you were doing and even when we said something you didn't stop. When you jumped off I feared the worst."

"I didn't mean-"

"You could have been dead!" She screamed. "You could have landed and shattered your gem into a million shards and you would be gone, all because of a misunderstanding. How could you think about doing that to me, to Garnet, to everyone?"

Suddenly Onyx's actions had a whole new weight put upon it: the impact it would have on those closest to her. She figured that if they couldn't forgive her for her actions they wouldn't miss her but…

"Garnet said that you survived the fall, that you would come back. But she didn't know! She could have been lying just to make me feel better."

Amethyst began to tear up and Onyx could feel the sadness in her friend. This wasn't what she wanted; she couldn't wish this on anyone so she needed to make it right.

Starting the only way she knew how, she leaned down and gave Amethyst a hug.

"I'm sorry, I never wanted to do this to any of you. I thought that after what happened you wouldn't want to see me ever again."

Amethyst chuckled. "It's gonna take a bit more than that to get on my bad side." Then she wriggled her way out of the hug. "And watch the hugging; I'm not in the mood to get all mushy."

"Well…" Onyx had no idea how to proceed.

Amethyst took the lead on this one. "Look, you're not the only one who's lost it at the rest of the gems."

"Really?"

"Yea, let's just say I was… a little unstable in my youth; I lashed out in frustration and even ran away a couple of times. But each time I felt lost the gems always told me the same thing 'You're one of us and nothing can change that'."

"So…"

"So unless you so something absolutely awful I'll forgive you."

"And what about Steven?"

Hearing that name made Amethyst sigh. "Oh… Steven's kind of a different story."

"He's still upset then?"

"More like catatonic. We explained to him that Pearl wasn't gone forever but he seems to be taking it really hard; he hasn't left the house since you left, he barely talks to us, he just sits on his bed all day and stares at her gem… it's a little unnerving honestly."

Onyx sighed. "I really hurt him, didn't I?"

Amethyst just nodded.

"I just wish there was something I could do to make this right. Some way I could say that I'm sorry so that he'll listen to me."

Amethyst rubbed the back of her head, trying to think of someway to help the gem. "Well… I know one person who knows Steven better than anyone else."

**A few minutes later…**

Greg Universe was closing up his carwash for the day, as he closed the gate that led to the inside he heard someone calling his name.

"Greg!"

Curious, he turned around and saw Onyx running to him.

"Hey Onyx, how are things?"

"Bad. Very very bad. Can we talk?"

Concerned for someone he considered a friend he nodded seriously. "Step into my office."

He walked around the carwash and opened up the backdoor to his van, h sat down on the edge and patted the seat next to him for Onyx to sit. She took that spot and was face to face with Greg.

"So tell me, what's got you so worked up?"

And so Onyx had to explain about the incident, about how she ran away, and how guilty she felt after she had done it. Although she excluded the fact that she attacked Pearl purely out of rage, she felt that that information might hurt her case more than help it so she told him that it was just a training accident.

Greg listened carefully and attentively and when it was all over he leaned back and exhaled.

"Wow, that is… that's something alright."

"Do you have any advice for me?"

Greg rubbed his beard in contemplation. "Honestly, this is not something that's easy. Steven's never had to see the gems regenerate and even if he had he way too young to remember it."

"Did anything like this ever happen to you?"

Greg chuckled. "Funny story about that, when I was dating Rose the gems came back from one of their missions and they had her gemstone in their hands. Now the minute I saw that I started crying, weeping actually, I thought that she was gone and I'd never see her again. But then the gems explained to me what happened and that I just had to wait. It was only for a couple of days… but those were some of the glummest days I had had in a long time."

"And what got you through them?"

He reached into the back of the van and pulled out his guitar. "My good old six strings right here."

Onyx was confused.

"Look, music has this way of reaching people's hearts. It can make them feel things that sometimes talking just can't. Music can make people feel happy, sad scared, pretty much any emotion you can think of."

"Is there a song that can make Steven forgive me?"

Greg rubbed the back of his neck. "Not in my collection there isn't…" Greg gasped. "But you could totally make one!"

"What?"

"Yeah! I thought you had this really cool vibe around you when we first met."

"A…vibe?" Onyx had no idea what he was talking about.

"You wear all black like you're metal, but you seem to really care about people like your soulful. It's a pretty sweet combination; I think you'd make some great songs."

"How would I make these songs?"

"Well first you need to learn how to play." Greg handed Onyx his guitar. "Pluck a few strings for me."

Onyx held the handle tight and plucked the strong to see how they sounded. The noise was alright, but the sound didn't last for very long.

"Okay, we need fix where you hold your hands and how hard you pluck the strings."

Greg moved Onyx's hands a little bit higher up on the guitar. "Now pinch the strings but don't pull them back to far or the sound won't travel as far."

Onyx didn't pull as hard this time and when she let the string go it sounded much better. She moved her hand all around the guitar to make several different notes and she could really hear and feel the difference.

"All right, you have the basic movements down. Now IK have to teach you what notes make what sounds and what they're called."

And so Onyx and Greg sat in the van for hours, learning how to play this instrument. Greg could see Onyx's skills improve as she began to play faster and with more clarity, and when he tested her by asking her to play a few songs they sounded great! She was really coming into her own.

Day turned to night without them noticing and the only thing that broke them out of their music session was a thump on the top of the van.

'What was that?" Greg asked.

Onyx put the guitar down to investigate, she stepped out of the van but didn't see anyone else outside. When she turned around to go back she saw a little purple cat sitting on the top of the van… wait, purple?

The cat jumped off the roof and when it hit the ground it transformed back into Amethyst.

Onyx smiled. "Hello Amethyst."

"Hey. What are you still doing here?" She asked.

"Greg is teaching me how to play music."

"Oh…cool."

"Why are you here? You told me to come here and I did, why are you so concerned?'

Amethyst looked to the side not meeting Onyx's gaze, she couldn't sense what was going on with the smaller gems emotions but she had a good idea of what it was.

Onyx grinned as she thought about it. "You were worried about me."

Amethyst looked surprised. "What? No I wasn't."

Onyx crouched down. "Yes you were." She tussled Amethyst's hair. "That's so cute that your thinking about me."

Amethyst pulled away. "Knock it off. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't run off again."

"Right. Of course." Onyx didn't believe that for a second.

She got back up. "Did you tell Steven that you saw me?"

"…nah, he probably doesn't want to hear it right now."

"Good. I'll be with Greg until I can figure out how to do this song I have planned and maybe after that I'll come home, okay?"

"Alright. I'll go tell Garnet."

Amethyst ran off but before she was out of sight she turned around and gave Onyx a thumbs up, just like she had given her a few days ago.

Onyx understood that it meant "keep going and stay positive" so she gave the thumbs up back and with that Amethyst ran away.

"You ready to get started again?" Greg asked.

Onyx turned around and nodded at him. "Yes. Let's finish this.

**The next day…**

It wasn't easy but Onyx's skill with the guitar became very good in the span of a day plus a few hours. Once she had learned how to play her guitar with skill she needed the song itself.

Greg took out a sheet of paper and a pencil. "Ok, now when writing a song you need a starting emotion. You're trying to say you're sorry right?"

"Correct."

"Okay, so you want to sound like you're really sorry, apologize but make sure that you say you want to improve."

"All right… how about this?"

Onyx wrote down the words on the piece of paper and then showed it to Greg, he looked at it and cringed.

"Um… it's a bit on point. Here, let me see that."

He took the pencil and erased a lot of the words Onyx wrote down.

"This isn't just something you're telling someone, it's supposed to be from the heart and it's supposed to flow."

Onyx looked down at herself. "Well that might be a problem, I don't have a heart, my heart is a rock."

Greg heard that and suddenly he got an idea. "Hey, that might make a good opening line. How about 'I know I'm just a rock…'"

"Hm, that's pretty good."

"Great, now what rhymes with rock?"

"Rhymes are words that sound the same right?" Onyx had to inquire, she had read about rhyming but she hadn't tried I personally so she wasn't sure.

"That's right."

"Well there's sock, clock, stock, walk…"

"Maybe we need to add something else to this."

And so now they bounced ideas off each together to make the perfect song for Steven, it took them quite a while but eventually they had a song the both of them could be happy with.

Once she had it Onyx was eager to go show it. "I've got to bring this to Steven, thank you Greg."

"Wait!" Before she left the van Greg handed her the acoustic guitar she had been using to make the song. "You can't play without an instrument can you?"

Onyx was hesitant to take it. "But… this is your instrument is it not?"

"Don't worry about it, I have an extra just like it, plus my electric guitar. Man, I gotta show you that sometime; but right now I bestow upon you my guitar, you've earned it. Take good care of her for me okay?"

Onyx took the guitar and slung the strings over her back so it hung from her person. "Thank you Greg, you have no idea how much this means to me."

"Anything to help Steven… he's my everything you know?"

"I understand. I cannot relate to what you feel, but I understand. Now it's time for me to go and make things right."

Onyx jumped off and headed for the temple, as she jumped off Greg looked on in amazement.

"He got another one Rosie… you said he was gonna be special."

**At the temple…**

Onyx walked up the steps cautiously; going too fast or too brazenly may result in Steven not listening to her. When she made it to the front door she peaked inside and saw Steven just lying in his bed looking at the celling and lazily strumming his ukulele.

She opened it slowly and stepped inside quietly. She walked up to Steven's room and just stood at the side of his bed, waiting to see if he would acknowledge her. Since he didn't she realized she would have to make the first move.

"Hello Steven." She said plainly.

He still didn't look up at her or even acknowledge her presence.

"I know I've been gone for a while, and I've done some thinking about what I did and…"

"It's different." He said, completely devoid of emotion

That came out of nowhere. "Come again?"

"When I was playing my ukulele I noticed it looked different, the paint looked brand new and the dents in the wood were missing."

"Yes, it is different. Something happened to your ukulele so I took it to your dad and he made you a new one."

Steven didn't respond.

"He really cares about you Steven. So much so that he gave me a way to try and reach out to you, to tell you what I'm really feeling right now, and for you to understand. I hope this helps things between us… just a little."

Onyx put the guitar in her arms,; she was a lot less confidant then when she had walked in here, perhaps it was because she was in Steven's presence. But there was no going back now, she put her hands on the strings and she began to sing.

_I know that I'm just a rock, but I have feelings to  
And I swear that none of them wanted to hurt you.  
I don't hate Pearl; I dislike her  
Maybe that's why I chose to fight her.  
But I didn't want to end her life, that I know is true._

_You may not want to see my face  
You may want me to leave this place  
But I can't leave you all alone  
Because to me you are my home._

Onyx added a little rift in between to keep things fresh, the notes got a little bit higher and came faster but then the tempo came back down when she entered the next verse.

_Pearl is coming back, but in that moment I was scared  
I thought the friendship that we had could never be repaired.  
And Steven I know what I did was wrong  
That's why I made you this song  
So that my feelings could be shared!_

_I want you to know that I care  
And that I will always be there  
So if you can find it in your heart  
Allow me to do my part._

_You may not want to see my face  
You may want me to leave this place  
But I can't leave you all alone  
Because to me… you are my home._

When Onyx finished she could feel a torrent of emotions coming from both her and Steven; Onyx felt like getting all of this off her chest was a good thing and it helped her keep her mind clear. Steven on the other hand had two emotions fighting for dominance: sadness and forgiveness.

Realizing he needed more time to think Onyx took the guitar off her person and held it in her hands.

"So… that's all I have to say." Onyx said plainly. "I'm going to go back in my room okay?"

Steven nodded.

"If you want to talk or if you need me for anything all you need to do is call my name and I'll be there okay?"

He nodded.

"Alright… see you later Steven."

Onyx walked to her temple door, when it opened she stepped inside slowly waiting to see if Steven would say something else. But he didn't… he only sniffled.

When the door shut behind Onyx she leaned against it and sat on the ground with herms crossed over her propped up legs. Steven didn't need to speak to her to share his feelings, when she sensed them she could understand what he was saying without needing words, and he spoke clearly:

_I want to forgive you… but it hurts too much._


	17. Defect: Part 3

**As new Steven Universe is on the horizons a chapter of "Onyx" shall be posted… at least that was the rule until school started. Now I can't work on my fanficiton as much as I'd like so these chapters may come out slower.**

**But right now, here's the conclusion to my 3 part non-cannon arc.**

It's been ten days since Onyx came back and apologized to Steven, in that time she's been mostly sitting in her room and reading or going with the rest of the gems to stop monsters. Steven has become more active and has been hanging out with his dad to pass the time, but it's obvious to see that Pearl's absence is still very hard for him.

He hasn't tried to talk to Onyx again, but he doesn't ignore her either, he acknowledges her presence and sometimes answers yes or no to her questions… but he still doesn't give her much.

On this particular Onyx was reading about medieval cultures, and seeing all their various weapons armor and technology intrigued her. In the middle of her reading she heard a knock on her door, when she went to open the door she saw Amethyst standing there.

"Good afternoon Amethyst." She greeted.

"It's evening."

"Oh. Well I suppose time got away from me; would you like to come in?"

"Sure I guess."

Onyx went back to sit on her bed with her book and Amethyst walked in and leaned her back against her bookshelf.

"So this is what you've been doing with your free time huh?" Amethyst asked.

"Pretty much."

"Not gonna go out and do something?"

"Like what?" Onyx asked curiously.

"I don't know… maybe talk to Steven."

Onyx sighed and put her book down. "You know I can't do that."

"And why not?" Amethyst asked irritated.

"Because talking to him isn't going to make him forgive me any faster, I need to let him work this out by himself."

"So you're just going to sit in here until he forgives you, which could take who knows how many more days or weeks?"

Onyx re opened her book and continued reading. "It's all I can do at this point."

Amethyst just stood there annoyed, tapping her foot on the floor with her arms crossed. Onyx's behavior didn't make sense to her, when something bothered her she did something about it; she didn't ignore it because that wouldn't help anything.

At that point Amethyst made a decision; she grabbed Onyx by the hand and started pulling her out of the room.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Onyx asked.

"Come on, you and me are going to hang out outside the house."

The temple door opened and Amethyst was still forcing Onyx to follow her. At this point Onyx was torn, should she let Amethyst lead her or use her strength to flip her free from her arm? The former seemed rude.

"Steven's hanging out with Connie right now, so you don't have to worry about running into him."

Wait, Steven was hanging out with Connie again? That's good; she brought something out in him, that should keep him distracted for a while.

**At the Boardwalk…**

Amethyst and Onyx were just walking down the boardwalk aimlessly; Amethyst had her hands behind her head to look cooler while Onyx just looked around.

"So what is it that you want to do exactly?"

Amethyst shrugged. "I don't know, I improvise these kinds of things."

They were passing by the Big Donut when Amethyst saw some person walk inside and that gave her a devious idea.

"I found something for us to do. Come on."

She ran behind the side of the building and Onyx ducked down behind her so they weren't seen.

"So what are we doing?"

"Just wait…"

It took a minute or two but soon enough Amethyst put her plan into place, when the guy who entered the Big Donut walked out again Amethyst quickly turned the corner and shape shifted into a bear. She growled so loudly that the man screamed in a high pitch, dropped his donuts, and ran away as quickly as his legs could carry him.

Once he was gone Amethyst fell to the ground and started laughing her head off. While Amethyst was laughing Onyx crept out from behind the corner and looked at Amethyst with shock.

"Amethyst, that wasn't good at all."

"Ha ha! Yeah, but it was funny."

"But what if he got angry at us? We could have had a problem on our hands."

Amethyst stopped laughing and got up from the ground. "Let me give you some advice Nyx-"

"Nyx?" Onyx questioned.

"Yeah, I have nicknames for everyone: Pearl is P, Garnet is G, Steven is Stevo, Early Man, Poofy, or Steee-van."

Onyx nodded, so the name was meant as a term of endearment? She liked it.

"Like I was saying, the people in this town don't like to mess with us; they've been like that for as long as we've lived here. So if one of them gets scared they aren't going to go running to anybody."

Onyx understood, she knew the serious power they wielded might scare others.

"Anyway…" Amethyst picked something off the ground. "That guy dropped his donuts, want to go sit on the beach and eat them?"

"Is there any chance we can give them back to him?"

"Nope."

Onyx sighed. "Alright."

So Onyx and Amethyst sat on the beach and watched as the sun set behind the massive ocean, Onyx took a donut out of the bag and ate it a little bit at a time while Amethyst turned the bag upside down and emptied the rest of them into her mouth.

"How do you do it Amethyst?" Onyx asked.

Amethyst swallowed all the donuts in her mouth before trying to answer her question. "Do what?"

"How can you just… do whatever you want to do without thinking of the consequences?"

Amethyst shrugged. "Guess it's just who I am."

"I could never do that." Onyx looked down at her gem. "I'm always feeling how you and the gems are feeling, always sensing things, always sensitive to other people's emotions. It really makes me think about how I act."

"Well… I guess a part of my attitude has to do with the fact that I don't care what the other gems think about me."

Onyx was surprised by that. "Really? Because it seems like you do care, even if you don't say it explicitly."

"I mean I do care what they have to say, but I try not to let it get me down or let it dictate my actions. Because in the end, as long as I'm happy being me then nothing else really matters."

"But can I be happy with myself even if I've done some horrible things?"

Amethyst chuckled a bit. "Horrible? You made one mistake, one temporary mistake."

"Yeah, but…" Onyx looked down at her hands. "I'm worried. What if that was just the start of something really bad? What if I lose control completely and try to destroy you guys?"

"No way, that's way too serious for you. You'd never do something like that."

"And how do you know that? I know nothing about myself, for all we know I was a sadistic killer before you guys found me."

Amethyst sighed. "I do know you. I've seen what you've done in the last month or two and I know for certain that you're not a bad gem."

"You don't know me." Onyx said glumly.

"Yes I do. I know that you're strong; I know that you care; I know that your loyal to your fellow gems, I know that you like to have fun, but above all else I know that you wouldn't do anything to hurt either us or Steven."

Onyx smiled at that, it's nice to hear Amethyst talk about her so highly.

"Besides, you were having fun before. Have you even seen an evil person who had any fun? I never have."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Sorry for dumping all my problems on you."

"Hey, you've helped me out with a lot more so I think this is only fair. Besides…" Amethyst extended an open hand. "We're pals right?"

Onyx took the hand and shook it. "Yes, we are indeed pals."

With that Amethyst got up and walked off, Onyx didn't know where. She was more intent on staring out at the sunset and focusing on this positive feeling she had within her; if she felt like this all the time maybe she wouldn't have to be nervous, or angry, or scared of what the future holds. Just maybe…

"Hey Onyx, catch!"

Onyx turned her head and saw Amethyst throwing a giant rock at her. Reacting quickly Onyx got up off the ground and caught the rock between her arms, the force of the impact pushed her a little bit but she stayed up.

"What are you doing Amethyst?" Onyx asked.

"Playing toss the rock. It's a game I invented where you toss a rock back and forth between players until it gets broken, it was pretty fun… of course I always played it by myself so now it should be more fun with someone else."

Onyx was hesitant to play this game but Amethyst was right, she needed to stop thinking so seriously for a bit.

"So… like this?"

She lobbed the stone at Amethyst so it wouldn't travel so fast and Amethyst caught it, it was harder for her to catch it because of her smaller stature but if she was able to throw it then she should be able to take it to.

"Not bad. Now see if you like this."

Amethyst spun around a bit before throwing it up into the air, Onyx jumped up to intercept it and when she grabbed it she turned her body around.

"Right back at you!"

She threw it right above Amethyst, it seemed like she wouldn't be able to grab it but Amethyst enlarged her arms so that now she was hugging the rock like it was no problem at all.

"Alright, here comes the big one!"

As Onyx landed back on the ground she saw Amethyst throw the rock at her like a baseball; it came too quickly and if Onyx tried to catch it it would surely smack into her and cause her lots of pain. Her brain had decided long before her body moved, and when the rock came at her she shattered it with an open palm and a forceful smack.

After that had happened, Onyx looked at the rock with surprise.

"Wow." Amethyst said. "Dude… that was impressive!"

"I…I didn't want to do that."

"Well yeah, cause now you lost."

"No, I mean I literally didn't think about doing that I just did it."

"But-"

"HELP!"

Amethyst and Onyx heard a scream coming from the distance and the voice belonged to someone they knew very well.

"Steven!" They both shouted.

They ran off towards the house, that's where the shout was coming from.

"I thought you said that you didn't want to see Steven." Amethyst said.

"He's in danger, that's worth more than a disagreement."

Amethyst smiled. "That's the spirit."

They made it to the front of the house and they saw Garnet doing battle with a strange caterpillar like creature that had a body made of several connected spheres with legs on the bottom and pincers on its head.

Amethyst pulled out her whip. "Hold on G!"

She jumped into the mix and wrapped her whip around the bottom of the caterpillar monster, but she tried to pull it away the bottom part moved but the rest of its body stayed in place.

And then the caterpillar took knocked its huge body into both Garnet and Amethyst and sent the two gems flying.

"What do I do? What do I do?" Onyx thought to herself in a panic.

The monster came closer and closer to Steven, inching down with its massive jaws. Steven surrounded himself in his bubble shield to protect himself but the monster kept bashing its pincers into the bubble harder and harder; Steven was having a hard time keeping the bubble up.

"_He… he can save himself can't he? He's performed incredible feats before."_

The monsters attacks were relentless and soon enough visible cracks were starting to form in Steven's bubble. He was struggling to keep it up, he needed help.

"Onyx! I need you!"

That was all the provocation she needed, she made a mad dash for Steven to come to his aid. Just as the bubble cracked and fell to pieces it looked like Steven was done for but Onyx stepped in, she grabbed Steven and rolled out of the way of the oncoming beast.

With him now safe, Onyx put him down next to a rock.

"Stay hidden until the monster is destroyed."

Steven nodded and hid behind the rock.

Onyx turned her attention back to the monster; she summoned her scythe and ran at the beast. It tried to snap at her with his jaws but Onyx smacked it with her weapon and that disoriented the beast. She figured the quickest way to destroy it was to separate its head from its body so she jumped up and sliced right at the creatures neck.

The blade passed through cleanly but as she came back down the monster smacked her with its large body. She landed on the ground in pain and when she got up she realized what the problem was.

"_This thing doesn't have any connective cells; its spheres just bind themselves together and split apart if necessary."_

Onyx needed to regroup with the rest of the gems first, she saw Amethyst knocked into a crater and she shook her back to her senses.

"Huh? Wha-"

"Come on Amethyst we need to tear this thing apart."

Hearing that got Amethyst excited and she cracked her whip. "All right, now you're talking!"

They rushed back into the fight and they saw garnet leap up from the ocean and give the beast a massive punch to the face, knocking it on its side.

"Garnet!" Onyx called.

When she was back on the ground she joined the other two gems.

"This thing is taking a lot of blows. We need to find some way to make it retreat back into its gem." Garnet explained.

Onyx nodded. "I have a plan. First I need you guys to wear it down with some physical blows then when I say so I need Amethyst to grab its bottom and you to grab its head."

"What good will that do?" Amethyst asked.

"Trust me I have a plan."

"It's our best shot at the moment, let's do it." Garnet agreed.

Garnet and Amethyst got up in the creatures face while Onyx stayed behind. She put two hands to her gem and concentrated; with a little work she was able to make a throwing spear out of her crystals.

While she did that Amethyst and Garnet were beating on the creature mercilessly with their weapons, not giving that creature an inch as they jumped over its large body attacks.

Once Onyx had enough spears she called to the gems. "Grab it!"

They made their way to the head and bottom while Onyx ran up with multiple spears in her arms. She threw one of them at the beast with enough force that it impaled its form and went right through; she repeated this all along the beast body and even got close enough to jam some of those spears in herself.

Once Amethyst and Garnet were in place and all the spears were inside the beast Onyx jumped back to give herself room enough to work.

"All right gems!" She yelled. "Get a good grip, and when I say go pull as hard as you can!"

"Ready…"

Onyx reached out with her powers, she felt her energy inside the spears she had created and she felt it clashing with the energies emitted by the monster. She felt the invisible forces that all energy holds, and how the spears were connected to her; they were an extension of her… and she could use that to her advantage.

"NOW!"

All the gems pulled on the monster at once causing its body parts to go off in different directions, its bonds weren't strong enough to keep it held together and soon enough it poofed to nothingness. Garnet found the gemstone in its body and sent in back to the temple.

Onyx smiled at her handiwork. "All right Steven the monsters destroyed, you can-"

Before Onyx could finish her thought Steven ran up to her and was hugging her legs. He… he missed her, and he was really happy that she came to his aid.

"Thank you so much. I was so worried when that thing showed up." Steven said thankfully.

Onyx chuckled, kneeled down and gave Steven a hair tussle. "No problem little man. You know I'd do anything to help you out."

"But… why didn't you jump in earlier?"

"I said all you had to do was call my name and I would come to your side. I was waiting for your call."

For some reason that made Steven smile and the two hugged it out. Garnet and Amethyst looked at this scene and they were glad, glad that Onyx had recovered from her emotional tilt and that Steven could look past her mistakes.

A true sign of his mother…

**Two days later…**

Everyone was lounging around the beach house, Amethyst was lazily lying on the floor, Garnet was in her room, and Steven was sitting on the couch with his ukulele while Onyx listened to him. He played a few notes but he wasn't trying to make music, he was just testing to see how it sounded.

"How was that?" Steven asked.

"it's good, but try making the third string a bit tighter, I think it would sound better with a higher pitch."

Steven did as instructed and when he struck the string again he noticed that it did sound a lot better.

Then something happened that none of them were expecting… Pearl's gem started to glow.

"Uh guys…" Amethyst brought it to their attention, once they all saw what was going on they got up of the couch in excitement as they saw pearl come back.

She hovered on the air for a few seconds; her form seemed to shift between several different versions of herself before it final settled and fell back to the ground, landing gracefully.

"Ah… that's better." she said to herself.

Steven was ecstatic to have Pearl back, as soon as she was back on the ground he ran up and gave her a big hug.

"Oh, did you miss me much Steven?" She asked curiously.

"Only a whole ton."

Once Pearl had finished greeting Steven and Amethyst her gaze turned to Onyx, the one who was responsible for her regeneration in the first place. Onyx was curious what Pearl was going to do once she was back up; if she wanted to fight again she was always prepared, but it might take her some convincing not to be upset with her anymore.

"Look Pearl, I want to say-" Onyx started.

Pearl put her hand up to silence her. "No need. I had a lot of time to think while I was regenerating and… I don't think you were completely in the wrong."

Wait… did Pearl just admit that she was wrong?

"When I was younger and I fought with Rose, well… people doubted me. I constantly had to put myself on the front line to prove to them and myself that I was worthy enough, I was constantly getting challenged and tested and… well I suppose the stress of trying to stay ahead of others is still with me."

"The point is, I said some hurtful things and you did some hurtful things, so why don't we just put it all behind us. Agreed?"

Pearl extended her hand and Onyx took it as a sign of agreement and friendship. "Agreed."

With that both of them were happy and Pearl walked off to resume her duties around the house that had most likely been neglected while she was gone.

"By the way Pearl…" Onyx called out.

Pearl turned around to look at her.

"I like your new outfit."

Pearl smiled at that. 'Thank you."

"I'm glad you got rid of that ridiculous tutu."

"And there it is."

Pearl was expecting some kind of backhanded compliment and she got one… things were back to normal in the house.

**Okay, can I just take a moment to talk about something in the new episode? First of all, "Nightmare Hospital" was awesome, definitely a solid 9/10: the hospital and the forced fusion monsters looked really creepy, the action was top notch (seeing Connie wield Rose's saber gave me chills) and the emotional development between Connie and her mother was really sweet, and when Steven looked at the sword with hurt in his eyes… oh my heartstrings were plucked.**

**But here's something interesting: When they were being attacked by the forced fusions and Steven was holding back the monster with his shield he said something rather peculiar:**

"**Get away from my Connie!"**

**Not get away from them, not get away from her, or even get away from my friends. Specifically he said get away from Connie, he even said "his" Connie.**

… **The shipper in me is gleeing so hard right now.**


	18. Busy week

**I really have no excuse for delaying the next chapter for this long. I tried to work hard on this, but school is being a major butt as of late I just find myself way too tired to give this story the love it deserves. **

**So to make up for my lack of chapters as of late I'm trying something a bit different this time. I wanted to skip an episode or two to get to an episode I was really excited for, but if I skip an episode entirely that basically means it didn't happen (like with Onion Trade)**

**So instead I'm going to do excerpts that span days at a time, covering a few episodes at once instead of one at a time. Since this is an experiment if you guys don't like it I can go back to doing what I normally do…**

**But for now, let the experiment commence!**

Onyx flopped down on her bed, face down. She doesn't spend a lot of time in her room but right now she needed a little bit of time after the hectic week she had. It seems like everywhere she went something was just trying to annoy her or kill her or tire her out.

At the beginning of the week Connie came over to hang out with Steven once again so Onyx and the others had to go fight a gem monster by themselves. Not entirely difficult buy the beast itself had a thick hide and took a lot of hits, once it was bubbled safely the teleported back to the house, but Amethyst suggested they pose to make themselves seem cooler in front of Connie… so that's what they did.

* * *

Everyone took their poses; Onyx in particular took a pose that mimicked the crane kung fu fighting style.

When they made it back to the house they pretended like they were surprised to see Connie there.

"Oh Connie, how surprising to see you." Pearl said in a nervous tone.

"We're gonna watch a movie about a wacky flying dog! Show 'em Connie!" Steven said excitedly.

"Well, it's about much more than that."

She showed the phone to the gems and they all saw the trailer. It wasn't entirely complicated and held no interest to them but if Steven enjoyed it that was all that mattered.

"Pfft, that's easy." Amethyst scoffed.

To prove her point she shape shifted into the helicopter dog from the video and flew around a little bit. Connie found it intriguing. Steven went on and on about how great the movie was going to be but Onyx stopped listening after a while.

She was more focused on Steven's gem, not the literal gem but the energy it was giving out; it felt much… warmer than usual. She couldn't really explain it but she could feel Steven's normal happy vibe being magnified further than normal, even more so than when he normally hung out with Connie.

"_What could this mean?"_ Onyx wondered to herself.

After a while of not paying attention Steven and Connie slammed the door and left the house. The rest of the gems seemed very nonchalant at the moment so Onyx decided to bring up her question.

"Did you notice anything different about Steven and Connie today?"

"What do you mean?" Amethyst asked.

"I mean, did they seem… different?"

Pearl shook her head. "No, they acted the same as they do every day."

Onyx tapped her foot on the ground in contemplation. "I don't think so. Hold on a second."

Onyx walked to the temple and stepped into her room, she looked through her massive collection of ever changing books: "A theory of social interactions" "Who are your friends?" "Understanding the human heart" (Turns out that last one was a book on anatomy… humans are weird on the inside) She went through the sections of her books for what felt like half an hour and while she couldn't find anything in particular they all pointed towards a new found feeling.

With book in hand she stepped outside and started talking to the gems who were still lounging about the house. "I don't know you guys, I did a little bit of reading and from what they're describing I really think-"

Onyx would have continued but something felt wrong in her chest, when she realized what it was she dropped the book in shock.

"Steven's gone." She said in an almost inaudible whisper.

"What?" Pearl asked.

"Steven… I can't sense him."

Pearl shrugged it off as nothing. "Well… he did say the movie theater was far away. Perhaps he is just out of range of your senses."

Instead of being calmed Onyx panicked even more, she ran out of the house and slammed the door behind her.

"Whoa, what crawled up her butt?" Amethyst asked.

Garnet shrugged. "I'm not sure whether or not she should be worried."

Onyx climbed up to the top of the house and looked out towards the horizon, it went on for miles… and that's how far she needed to scan. She put her hand to her chest and searched deep inside herself.

"_Come on Onyx, you can do this."_

She closed her eyes and felt her body releasing its wave of energy, that energy wave traveled far but then she felt it teeter off. She tried to make it travel farther, to feel it going further; she concentrated as hard as she could and felt her energy levels rising. The wave traveled further, she could feel it stretching out across the land and then… she sensed it.

Dozens and dozens of energy signatures in front of her, they peppered the city and created a buzzing in her head. These weren't gem signatures, that would be impossible, it was just… energy. She was sensing the energy of anything that required power, everything coming at her at once without a voice, just the constant buzzing.

She gripped her head as it began to hurt, she couldn't turn it off, she tried to force all these feelings to go away but they wouldn't eventually the strain became too much for her and she fell to the ground as everything went dark. She was still awake but she couldn't feel anything around her.

But as she got back up on her feet something stood out, something very far away, but its energy felt familiar; it was strong, but not quite there at the same time.

"Lion." Onyx said in realization.

Wherever that beast went Steven was probably close behind, she jumped off the roof and started running in the direction of her instincts. After running for a while Onyx felt like she wasn't going to get there fast enough, so she got on her hands and knees and turned back into her cheetah form. She ran for what seemed like hours until she made it to the theater where the energy originated.

When she reached the outside she turned back to human form and examined the outside, there were signs of explosions, destruction, and high energy attacks.

"_Definitely the signs of a gem attack."_

Soon enough Steven Connie and Lion walked out of the theater looking bruised and they had a giant sword with them. As soon as Onyx saw them her worry was put at ease and Steven was surprised to see her here.

"Onyx?" He questioned

"Steven!" She said excitedly.

She rushed over to them to make sure they were okay. They had some bruises on them but it wasn't anything that couldn't be easily fixed.

"What are you doing here?" Steven asked.

"I got… worried." Onyx sighed. "My gempathy couldn't find you and feared the worst had happened and… where did you get the sword?"

"Oh, it came from Lion."

"What?"

"Yeah, Lion pulled it out of his hair and gave it to me."

Onyx wasn't expecting that, if he could do that it may explain why she was sensing gem energy surrounding it.

"Can I see the sword please?"

Steven nodded and handed Onyx the sword, she had to take it in two hands because of how big it was.

"Wow, that's heavy. How did you even manage to wield this by yourself?"

"Well Connie helped me hold it steady. It really helped against that machine thing."

"What machine thing?"

"Um… it's a long story I'll tell you on our way home."

"Alright." As Onyx examined the sword further she noticed a pattern of sorts. "Hold on a second…"

"What is it?"

"Steven, I think this sword belonged to your mother."

"Huh? What makes you think that?" He asked curiously.

"Well the biggest reason is that it's pink like your mom's hair. Besides that, the blade is designed like a one handed saber but it's big enough to be a greatsword, so it would need a larger gem to wield it. And finally if you look at the handle…" She turned the blade over so the kids could see. "The pommel has a rose bud on it, a unique design choice."

Steven put his hand to his chin. "So if the sword is connected to my mom… does that mean Lion is connected to my mom to?"

Onyx looked down at Lion who just stared at her with his usual blank eyes.

"Perhaps, but for now let's just wait and see."

Lion walked up to Onyx and lowered his head. As he did she saw his mane begin to glow with energy.

"What's going on?" Onyx questioned.

"I think he wants you to return the sword."

Trusting Steven on this matter Onyx thrust the sword close to Lions head but instead of hurting him the sword seemed to get absorbed by his mane until it had disappeared completely.

"Alright, now that that weirdness is over let's get you two kids home. We need to bring Connie back home and I don't think that her parents are going to be happy with her covered in marks."

Steven gasped and had a shocked look on his face. "Oh no! You're right!"

Onyx waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry, there are some first aid supplies back at the house, I'll get the two of you cleaned up and your family won't notice a difference."

They were about to walk off but Lion bumped his head into Onyx's leg and kept his head lowered.

"Lion, what are you doing? I already gave you the sword back."

"I think he wants you to ride him." Steven suggested.

Onyx raised her eyebrows, she wondered why Lion would want that but the beast was a mystery so she just took it in stride. She took her place on Lion's back and she found it be more pleasant than she originally thought, Lion's fur was smooth and comfortable. With everyone on the beast Lion just backed up a bit slowly.

"So, what happens-"

Before Onyx could finish her question Lion started running forward at a fast pace until he roared incredibly loudly and summoned a portal that , when the passed through it, transported them to some sort of starry subspace and finally to the house.

"Lion… can teleport?" Onyx asked.

"Apparently so."

"Okay… now I really need to hear that story."

So they all went inside, Steven told Onyx about the adventure he and Connie had in the armory while Onyx got Connie and Steven cleaned up. Onyx bandaged the wounds on Steven's arms while Steven helped Connie fix her hair; he took a hairbrush and was carefully putting it back the way he had found it when she came over.

As Steven did this Onyx could feel that warm energy come back into his heart; that gooey sentimental feeling that made her feel warm inside as well. Onyx would have said something about it but if she couldn't understand what Steven was feeling how would she explain it? She decided to just let it be for now.

If it's a human emotion, she was sure that the most human person she knew could figure it out.

* * *

Then a few days later there was the giant puffer fish monster they had to fight, which annoyingly was covered in spikes that gave it a tough outer shell and on top of that it blew wind like a monsoon so they couldn't even get close enough to touch it. Even Garnet didn't have enough force to defeat the creature so they just knocked it away to deal with it later. And that seemed like the end of it… no such luck.

* * *

The gems sat at their kitchen counter to rest and figure out a strategy to beat the monster. But their little discussion was interrupted when Steven walked up to them with a sad look on his face.

"I have some bad new guys. You've been banned from Fish Stew Pizza."

While Steven seemed saddened by the news the rest of the gems didn't see to really care too much.

"It's alright Steven." Pearl said.

Amethyst nodded. "Yeah, their pizza wasn't that great."

"How are you so calm about this?" Steven wondered.

"We're trying to save the world from monsters; pizza is not high up on my list of concerns." Onyx admitted.

"But these are our neighbors!"

"There's nothing we can do about that now. The puffer is our main concern."

"What's the point of saving people if they're just gonna ban you from their pizza shops?"

"We don't do it for thanks."

"Yeah, see! That's so nice of you, the Pizzas don't even know! If they got to spend some time with you they'd see how fun and smart and cool and mysterious you are!

Suddenly, Steven seemed to have an idea. "I know! I'll throw a little party on the beach in front of the temple! Just us and the Pizzas."

"I don't know, Steven. I mean..."

"Don't worry! I'll take care of everything!"

Steven ran outside to get things settled and the rest of gems debated amongst themselves.

"Should we stop him?" Pearl asked.

Onyx shrugged. "I'm torn, the last time he threw a party he almost died, but it was a lot of fun and I don't believe this will have the same circumstances."

They looked to Garnet; in the end she had the final say about these sorts of things since she was not only their leader but possibly the most intelligent of them all.

"The gem monster needs to be destroyed, but for now we don't know where it is. Either we spend hours looking for it and possibly missing it or we let it come back to find us… and in the meantime, we'll let Steven have his party."

Onyx nodded. "Alright. I've met one of those people before so that should make things a bit easier conversation wise."

Pearl looked annoyed. "Right… we have to talk to them. Ugh."

**A little bit later…**

The gems walked out to check on Steven and they saw him cooking some food over a grill, he also set up a table for them all to sit at. Onyx wondered where he got all these supplies from and how he managed to set them all up so fast by himself but it didn't seem like a very important issue.

"Hey Steven, you got everything ready?" Amethyst asked.

"I think so. Oh, there is one thing…"

Steven picked up a magazine labeled "Foine summer special" and handed it to Garnet.

"What's this?" Onyx asked.

"I was thinking you guys could change your outfits."

"What's wrong with the outfits we have?" Pearl asked.

"Nothing, I just thought you might want to dress more casual."

As the gems looked over the designs Steven looked down the beach and saw the Pizza family approaching.

"They're coming! Hurry up and change!"

Steven ran up to greet the family while the rest of the gems examined the designs in this magazine.

"I don't know about this." Onyx said concerned. "I like what I have on, this suit is what I'm most comfortable with."

"I don't know." Amethyst pointed to one design in the book. "I kinda like this one."

Pearl picked out another. "And this one does have a certain sense of elegance about it."

Onyx sighed. "Alright, I suppose I'll pick… this one."

"Then we're all decided. Get into position and follow my lead." Garnet commanded.

The gems stood in a row with their hands to their sides, waiting to be introduced. Steven walked forward with the family and motioned to them.

"First, let me introduce-"

"We are the crystal gems!" Garnet announced.

"Garnet!"

Garnet changed her outfit to a two-piece with a dark red top, with a pink outline and a slanted black skirt with a red stripe that stops slightly above her knees.

"Amethyst!"

Amethyst changed to have her hair in a ponytail, a long sleeve shirt that showed off her gem, and jean shorts.

"Pearl!"

Pearl wore a flowing, sky-blue sundress extending to her knees with a white shawl around her shoulder area.

"Onyx!"

Onyx's outfit was a simple solid black one piece bathing suit with a v neck design to keep her gem exposed.

"Oh my, you're all so talented." The short one commented.

After that the gems sat down and ate with the Pizza family. They talked civilly for a while and got to know each other until they decided to play a sport game. They all divided up into teams… except Onyx because she didn't know the rules and they had an uneven number of players. As Onyx expected the gems ego's got the better of them and they resorted to using their powers and it ended in all of them arguing.

And then things got worse when the puffer fish monster rounded the corner and tried to blow them all away, thankfully the gems were able to get the Pizza family out of the way before they were harmed. Now all that remains was dealing with the monster itself.

"That's it, we're ending this now." Onyx said in frustration.

She tried to throw shards at the monster but its winds were too strong and they flew back at the group, to make sure that the group was safe Onyx stomped on the ground and made a wall of crystal that would protect them from any flying debris.

"Oh my… Steven!" Pearl exclaimed.

They looked out and saw both Steven and Nanefua running around the puffer fish, leading it away from them.

"Steven, I hope you have a plan." Onyx yelled.

"I do! You and Amethyst need to do your tricks."

"Our… tricks?" Amethyst wondered.

"When you crashed into the beach."

Onyx gasped. "He wants us to pop the puffer."

"What?" Pearl asked.

"Amethyst got thrown into the beach so hard she made a spikey ball, if I can do the same thing on the other side of the puffer that will pop it for sure."

Garnet liked the plan and nodded. "Alright, Steven keep it distracted, Amethyst turn into a ball."

She mock saluted. "Rodger." Then she turned into a giant beach ball.

Garnet picked Amethyst up. "I'm going to start counting from ten, when I reach one the both of you will slam into the monster and pop it, got it?"

"Got it!"

"Here we go!" Garnet cried. She jumped out from behind the barrier with Amethyst in her grasp. "Ten!"

Onyx jumped out as well. "Nine!"

Garnet got into place on the beach while Steven and Nanafune kept the beast distracted. "Eight!"

Onyx was jumping from rock to rock scattered around the beach to try and elevate herself. "Seven!"

Garnet punched Amethyst into the air to get her up high. "Six!"

Onyx started running up the Cliffside to gain even more height. "Five!"

When Garnet met Amethyst in midair she brought her fists down on her even harder than she did when she launched her up. "Four!"

Onyx jumped off the cliff and dove towards the puffer monster. "Three!"

Amethyst was traveling at the best so fast that she started to combust in midair. "Two…"

"Steven, Nana, get out of the way!" Onyx shouted as she drew ever closer.

Before the monster could get out of their path the two gems were only a few feet from the ground.

"ONE!" They shouted simultaneously.

Amethyst and Onyx slammed into the ground at the same time; Amethyst's impact heated the glass to the point that it created a spiky ball and Onyx created an equally large spikey ball of crystal and when the puffer monster was sandwiched between the two of them it was popped into its gemstone form. Once it was gone Garnet came over and bubbled it.

"Nice work you two." Garnet complimented.

Onyx punched through her crystal ball and smiled. "Thanks."

Once they had gotten Amethyst out of her glass shell and all the families reunited they had a chat.

"Thanks for your hospitality." Kofi said.

"And?" Nanefua added.

"And, for saving my family, you are all officially un-banned from my shop."

Steven was ecstatic. "Aw, thank you so much, Kofi! We really appreciate it, right, guys?"

"Okay, sure." Garnet said emotionlessly.

"Aaaand?"

None of the gems knew what to say, but Onyx stood forward and bowed.

"We formally apologize for destroying your sign, it will never happen again. Should you need our services in the future you will have them."

The Pizza's seemed very surprised by this formal apology but they were happy to receive it.

"Excellent! Good day to you all!" Koffi said.

"Later girl, we should hang out again soon." Kiki waved.

As the Pizza's walked off the gems were surprised to see that Onyx responded the way she did.

"Whoa, where the heck did that come from?" Amethyst asked.

Onyx shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I had some formality training or something."

"Yes… or something…" Pearl said nervously.

Pearl thought something suspicious about what Onyx said… if only Onyx could figure out what that was.

* * *

And just to top off her week, she had to go with the gems to track and fight a gem monster for over a day and half! The stupid monster was mole like in origin so it was perfectly at home underground and dug around no problem while the gems were getting caved in constantly and having to deal with its powerful claws.

When she looks back on it the fight was more annoying than anything else, but what really killed her was what happened after she came home. They tried to talk to Steven and be sociable but they just ended up making him upset to the point where he ran into the temple. The gems… didn't take it to weell

* * *

"Steven!" Onyx screamed.

She moved towards the temple door and tried to open it up but the door refused to open. Panic increasing even further she summoned her scythe and tried to slash the door open, but the door didn't budge or even show signs of scratching.

She would have continued to try and take down the door but the gems pulled her back.

"Onyx, that won't work." Pearl said.

"That door was designed thousands of years ago to survive much more than that. You can't break it down." Garnet said.

Onyx pulled away from the gems grasps. "But Steven's stuck in there!"

"We know, but worrying about him isn't going to help."

"But…but… I have no idea what's in there! I can't feel anything he's feeling and for all I know he could be in danger."

"Why are you so concerned about him?" Amethyst asked.

"Because… I want to be there for him."

They thought Onyx was being overly anxious but her concerns seemed to be coming from somewhere, so they listened to her.

"I've seen the things that you guys face as the crystal gems, all of us are in danger but we don't think about that because we can regenerate. Steven… I don't know if he can because of his biology and I would rather not test that theory."

"So you're concerned about his safety?" Pearl asked.

"But it isn't just that; I've seen the things that Steven can do and I find them amazing. He's so kind and creative and determined, I want to see what he does next but I don't want him to get hurt."

All the gems were silent for a moment; they weren't quite sure how to address this at face value… except for Garnet.

She smiled slightly. "You're starting to feel what we all felt."

"What?"

"When Steven came around at first we were all hesitant, some of us… even less so. But we all saw him for his true potential and what we considered a duty to protect turned into something more caring, more nurturing. We want to raise Steven and make sure that he becomes as amazing as we all think he can be."

"So... does this make me Steven's guardian to?"

Garnet shook her hand at that. "I don't think so. You definitely care about Steven but you haven't known him for as long as we have, our feelings are more maternal than yours."

Onyx was a bit bummed to hear that her desire to protect Steven was apparently not as intense as the other gems. How were they supposed to know that? They didn't have emotional sensing powers.

"But… with the way that you wish to protect him and the way you wish for him to have fun I would say you fit into more of Amethyst's role."

"And what role is that?" She asked.

Amethyst just shrugged. "I'm me, I'm there, and I'm awesome."

It was simple, but it did serve the purpose Onyx needed, she had her role.

She nodded. "Alright, I'll be myself, I'll be there for him, and I'll be awesome."

"Well you already got one of those down." Amethyst replied with a smirk.

"Thanks Amethyst."

As they talked amongst themselves they saw the door to the temple glow and when the door opened Steven came flying out of it and crashed into garnet, knocking them both to the ground.

"Guys!" Steven said excitedly. "Wait…"

Steven took Garnet's hand and bit it.

"Ouch." Garnet said in her stoic tone.

"You're not clouds!"

"Yeah Steven!" Amethyst cheered. Then she proceeded to bite Pearl on the arm and Pearl screamed in pain.

"Steven, what happened in there?" Onyx asked.

"Well, at first it was all clouds and then I tried to leave and the room made a whole copy of Beach City but it was wrong and…"

"It made a whole city?" Pearl said shocked. "It can't handle a task that complex. Thank goodness you got out safe."

"Yeah… sorry I ran away from you guys. I just wanted things to go my way."

Onyx shrugged. "All is forgiven Steven. Sometimes we don't know what we want and we need others to show us the way, there's nothing wrong with that."

"But, now that that's over… we have some free time." Garnet said.

Taking that as a sign Steven gasped, and so the group went off to go play golf.

"I'm very excited to try this. Golf sounds like a very fun sport."

* * *

Golf was a terrible sport, Onyx always swung the club too hard and the ball would go flying either out of the park or into other people, by the end of it she had more than twice as many points as any gem and they were lucky that they didn't get kicked out.

All in all her week had been tiring, trying, frustrating, and potentially dangerous and as Onyx drifted off to sleep there were only three words she could use to describe it.

"Best week ever."

**And that's the end to a sorry excuse for a chapter.**

**Again, really sorry this took as long as it did, I promise that "Coach Steven" will come out in a timely manner. Besides, I'm really excited and I want to share this with you guys to see how you react to it.**

**Until then, I'm out.**


	19. Onyx and Goliath

**Meanwhile, in the mind of spiderwilliam13:**

**Wolf: GRGH! Lamb, why hasn't the master posted any of his new work?**

**Lamb: Be patient Wolf, he will do so in time.**

**Wolf: But he has the thoughts in his mind; thoughts of blood and war and betrayal.**

**Lamb: But these thoughts must be put to paper before they become reality, and a balance is required in his real world.**

**Wolf: Are we not real enough?**

**Lamb: In a way, yes. He must keep his life in order if he wishes to keep our lives in order.**

**Wolf: But… Spinel… the reaper…**

**Lamb: They will come in time, if you are patient.**

**Wolf: Very well.**

**You heard the voices in my head, they're just as upset about me not posting work as I am, and they're just as annoyed as I'm sure you all are. Sorry I've been gone for a month (plus a few days) but I've been working on some really great material and I hope you all enjoy it and it makes up for my lack of updates.**

Fear. Fear is not an emotion that is learned, it is an instinct that exists in all sentient life that helps them to survive. But sometimes a warrior must ignore that fear, even if that means standing in the face of immeasurable odds that will most certainly mean death.

That's what Onyx was facing now, standing at the foot of a 50 foot tall fusion gem with a wrecking mace that must have weighed tons; she was staring fear in the face.

And to think, it hadn't started like this…

Their job seemed simple; dismantle an old inactive gem communication tower. But this tower was tough, centuries old stone would not come apart because of some minor weapons; they needed something with a bit more power. Garnet suggested a fusion but Pearl seemed highly against it, Onyx didn't know why at the time but soon everything became very clear.

"Synchronize!" Garnet commented.

She began dancing, gyrating her hips to the sound of a beat that no one else could hear. Pearl covered Steven's eyes for this dance but Onyx watched on, even though her cheeks grew flush against her will.

"_I feel… very strange."_ Onyx thought to herself.

Soon enough the two gems collided when their fusion was done with, and as they began to form they grew to incredible sizes, and their power… Onyx senses massive levels of power coming off this new gem and not all of it was pure.

Then the massive gem revealed itself: Sugalite. Her snarled teeth, her 3rd eye sticking out of her massive glasses, her shades of purple, and just the raw size of her muscles… Onyx was afraid of what this gem could do.

"Ah!" The new fusion reveled in its creation. "I forgot how great it feels to be me!"

"That's Sugilite?" Steven asked shocked.

"You got it, baby. Hey Steven, wanna see something cool?"

"Yeah!"

With a flashy wave of her arms Sugalite summoned her weapon, Garnet's gauntlets on the end of Amethyst's whip to create some sort of a wrecking mace. With it Sugalite had no problem destroying the communication tower, but it did create a lot of debris that was dangerous to the people closer to the ground.

"Get back" Pearl cried.

She tried to protect Steven from the falling rocks while Onyx used her scythe to slice through any rock that got too close to the group. Eventually the presence and danger that Sugalite created was too much and the trio decided to return without her.

"Grgh! Every time with those two, they always get too out of control! Why does no one listen to me?" Pearl rattled off her usual quarrels with the group.

Onyx sighed. "They may have been reckless Pearl but they're going to get the job done a lot faster than you or I could have by ourselves."

At that Pearl groaned and walked away. With that mission done the gems were free for the rest of the day and time seemed to move forward pretty quickly.

**Later…**

In the time between then and now Steven had constructed what appeared to be a small exercise course, invited Lars Sadie and his father over, gain an entirely new attire, and convince them to exercise with him… Onyx was impressed he could get that done so quickly.

As she watched Steven continue his training she also saw Pearl working in his room. She began to sing for herself; Onyx had to admit that the song was emotional, she could feel it in Pearl's energy, but it felt so… self-centered. Pearl was asking Steven to learn things her way and sometimes that doesn't always work, especially when the student is so different from the master (if Onyx could call Pearl a master… which she wouldn't.)

"_I can show you how to be strong, in the real way."_

Onyx felt like now was her time to interrupt. _"Who's to tell him how to be strong, in the real way?"_

Pearl looked at her with anger. _"I can inspire him! I want to be his rock!"_

"_All you do is talk, a fire far too dim."_

Now it seemed the two gems had reached a standoff, the music in the air had disappeared and it was time for them to use real words.

"Pearl, what you're asking Steven to do isn't right." Onyx started.

"Asking him to choose strategy over blunt force isn't right?"

"No, but forcing him not to do things his own way is. Lessons are learned better through experience than through force."

"And what if his experiences get him hurt? I'm just trying to show him what it means to truly be strong."

Onyx could see that Pearl wasn't going to have a reasonable conversation so she decided to just say what she needed to say and move on.

"True strength is determined by the user. It's up to us to decide what kind of strength we need, even if we're wrong; if Steven wants to be physically strong because he thinks it'll help the team then I say we let him try." Onyx walked past Pearl and headed for the front door. "If you need me, I'm going to be training with Coach Steven out there."

And so Onyx stepped outside and began training with Steven and his friends, although instead of doing pushups or pull-ups she was lifting large rocks up and down, she felt like it was a good way to both increase her physical strength and annoy Pearl at the same time.

And then the next day… fear revealed itself again.

Sugalite appeared on the beach out of nowhere, she was upset that she was left behind and the communication altar despite the fact that the warp pad wasn't working and she went in a frenzy of rage.

Pearl and Onyx tried to stop her but they were no match, Pearl got smacked away within a minute of the fight and hit the ground with a lot of force. Onyx didn't fare much better, she tried to slash Sugalite's legs but she just kicked the smaller gem away and smashed her with one of her hands.

Onyx collapsed to the ground as her scythe fell out of her hands. She lay in the crater that Sugalite made; she was beaten, she hurt more than she had when she fought Garnet, and she didn't have the will to go any further.

"I'm sorry everyone…" She said sadly to herself.

Sugalite prepared for one final strike.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you Garnet, Amethyst…Steven…"

She began to cry, she did not want her life to end but she didn't have the will to fight anymore.

"I wasn't strong enough, I'm not… strong..."

Her eyes began to close…she didn't want to see what happens next.

"Onyx!"

Steven shouted at her, she turned her head and saw him with a megaphone in his hands, trying to reach out to her.

"You have to get up! I know you can do it!" He cheered on.

"No you don't, I'm not really strong enough."

"Come on Onyx! Are you going to take this lying down or are you going to fight?"

Fight? She was good at fighting…could she-

"You've always been strong, and I was scared of your strength before, but now's the time to use it!"

She felt the pain in her limbs catch fire, but the fire didn't burn in pain…it burned with energy! She felt her whole body begin to fill up with some kind of hidden power.

"Save the gems! Defeat Sugalite! Prove that you're strong… in the real way!"

Yes! Onyx wasn't going to go down like this, she was a warrior! She grabbed her scythe in both hands and used it to bring herself back up. Her pain was temporary, but this victory was going to be forever.

She stood up again and looked up at the massive Sugalite, but she didn't see her as a giant anymore, she was just an obstacle waiting to be beaten.

"What? You want some more?" Sugalite screamed at her.

"ALWAYS!" Onyx shouted back.

She closed her eyes and began to draw on all her strength; this would take everything she had so she drew from the well of frustration and anger inside herself…and turned it into power.

"Do you honestly believe you're strong? Well let me tell you the truth…YOU'RE NOTHING!"

Black crystal began to form around Onyx's hands; they created gauntlets with razor sharp claws around her fingers. Then, crystal began to grow out of her back and stretch into a shape…

"There will always be someone stronger than you, and today…"

Two crystalline wings formed on her back, the crystals were in elegant shapes that made a beautiful pattern on the wings. Onyx opened her eyes and her iris' were gone, there were only white glassy orbs now.

"I am that someone."

Sugalite looked at the gem for a second and then started laughing. "Are you serious? You think a little form change is going to be enough to beat me?"

Rather than responding Onyx spread her new wings and leapt up into the air, her wings propelled her up higher than she could jump and faster than she could run. Before Sugalite could give her a second thought she was right up in her face and slashed her across the cheek with her scythe, creating a visible gash.

Sugalite put a hand up to her new wound, then she looked at Onyx who hovered right in front of her with fire in her eyes.

"You're nothing more than an insect to me." She said angrily.

Onyx pointed her scythe. "Then prepare to be stung."

Sugalite put two hands together and attempted to crush Onyx in midair, but she was fast enough to dodge the attack. Then Onyx continued slashing Sugalite in the face, but with more speed than power. Sugalite got upset and tried to smack Onyx away, but Onyx retracted her wings and Sugalite only ended up hitting herself in the face.

"Missed me!"

As Onyx fell down she dug her scythe into Sugalite's body and began dragging it down with her, creating a slash that grew bigger and bigger with time. She would have continued down Sugalite body but Sugalite did something clever and belly flopped onto the ground, doing no damage to her but crushing Onyx underneath her.

Having the weight of a gem that size on top of her was incredibly painful, but Onyx's gem was still intact and she refused to give up. When Sugalite got up off of her Onyx was quick to react, she looked up and saw the bigger gem raising a foot to crush her with.

"Not this time!" Onyx screamed.

As Sugalite's massive foot came down Onyx surrounded her arm in crystal and created a spikey point at the end, turning her arm into a crystal blade of sorts. When Sugalite's foot got close Onyx rose her arm up and stabbed right through the foot, thankfully the pain was enough to make Sugalite stop coming down on her and grab her foot in pain.

"Oh you don't like that? Then you'll hate this!"

Onyx summoned another scythe, but this time she held onto it tightly and she used her powers to make crystal surround it. The weapon grew and grew until it was more than three times its original size and the blade extended to have two blades on both sides of the pole.

Onyx took her new giant weapon and swung it around slowly, its massive size was difficult to wield even with her enhanced gem strength. She swung the blade so that the back blade caught around Sugalite's other ankle.

"Have a nice trip!"

Onyx pulled as hard as she could and the massive blade hooked took Sugalite's off balanced body and made it fall to the ground onto her back.

The force of the fall seemed to stun Sugalite for a moment, Onyx decided to take this chance to hopefully put an end to this massive fusion. With as much force as she could muster she raised her massive scythe above her head.

"This is the end… FAREWELL!"

She brought the scythe down and tried to cut Sugalite in half but before it could make contact Sugalite made her move, she grabbed Onyx and held her in one of her massive hands causing her to drop the scythe mid swing, making it useless.

Sugalite held her high above the ground, squeezing her like a toy. This hurt Onyx incredibly and it was so tight that she had no way out.

"You are a bigger pest than I thought you'd be!" Sugalite yelled.

Onyx had to hold herself together, so she looked up at Sugalite and grinned with teeth barred.

"I'm not a pest. I consider myself more… a thorn in your side."

After she said that she used her crystal formation powers to create several big crystal spikes out of her body that impaled Sugalite's hand. Sugalite screamed in pain and Onyx hoped that would make Sugalite drop her but instead it seemed like Sugalite just gripped her tighter, then she tossed her into the ground so hard that she made a small crater.

The fight wasn't over yet; Onyx got up and pulled out another scythe.

"Please…stop."

She heard a weak cry coming from somewhere, she looked to her side and saw Pearl struggling to get up as well.

"You… can't keep fighting her." She managed to breathe out. "She'll destroy you."

"And if I don't keep fighting her she could destroy everything. Please Pearl, you must understand… I need to be strong enough to do this!"

Onyx raised her wings and was prepared to go forward into danger again, but before she could lift off Pearl said something that got her attention.

"True strength… is in the eye of the user."

Onyx turned towards Pearl downed form.

"It's up to us to decide what kind of strength we need, even if we're wrong… sound familiar?"

Onyx had to admit… Pearl was right. This was a suicidal battle she had engaged in; she was undoubtedly strong, but not strong enough to beat a gem of Sugalite's size and savagery. She needed a plan, and Pearl was quite good at plans.

Onyx extended an arm to help Pearl get up off the ground, with their hands interlocked Onyx pulled her up and Pearl used Onyx's shoulder for balance.

"So if we want to approach this your way, how we you suggest we do it?" Onyx asked.

"Well, I have an idea… but you'll need to disarm Sugalite, lead her up the cliff, and hold her off for at least two extra minutes."

"That sounds impossible… but so was what I was doing before, I'll do it."

The two gems nodded. Pearl ran off to get in position; Onyx went back into the air and got Sugalite's attention.

"Sugalite!" Onyx screamed.

Sugalite turned around and snarled at her.

"You still have yet to crush this little insect; I'm really starting to question your strength."

That made Sugalite roar in anger; she summoned her wrecking mace and started twirling it around. She threw it to try and crush Onyx but she dodged it with her quick flying.

"Catch me if you can, lead feet!"

Onyx flew away and started going up the beachside cliff, but Sugalite was in hot pursuit and wouldn't leave her alone.

"_Pearl, this plan of yours better work…"_ She thought to herself.

As the two gems went up the cliff Sugalite summoned her wrecking mace and prepared to attack again, she swung it around with great momentum and threw it at Onyx.

This is what Onyx was waiting for, she did a half loop up and when the wrecking mace sailed past her she cut through the rope that was connecting it to the handle and the weighted end fell to the ground harmlessly and landed near the edge of the cliff.

"Looks like you lost your weapon!" Onyx shouted. "If you want to destroy me…"

Onyx made it to the end of the cliff then she retracted her wings again. "… you'll have to get closer."

She fell down and glided a few inches away from the cliff. Sugalite jumped after her and fell down much faster because of her greater mass; she caught up with Onyx quickly and grabbed her in her giant hands. When she landed back at the bottom of the cliff, she took her hand with Onyx still in it and slammed it against the cliff; Onyx was now pinned to the cliff and with Sugalite's massive strength there was no way she was getting out of this one.

"This close enough for you, sunshine?" Sugalite taunted.

Onyx grunted under the force of her opponent. "You really don't understand anything do you?"

Sugalite grinned. "And what's there to understand?"

"You may have incredible strength, but in becoming this thing you lose the parts that make you unique. You've lost Garnet's control, you've lost Amethyst's quickness and energy, you're nothing more than a colossal ape!"

Sugalite growled, she was ready to end this now. She brought one of her massive fists back and started winding up a massive punch.

"Go ahead, strike me down if you want to, but it will never stop my influence. I am a warrior for this planet! I am the blade that cuts through its enemies! I… am just stalling for time, now Pearl!"

What Sugalite didn't notice is that while she had Onyx in her grasp Pearl was up above them, using her spear like a fulcrum to push the head from Sugalite's mace off the cliff and down onto her head. Thankfully Pearl chose the right time to get her act together and she threw the object off the cliff just as Sugalite looked up to see what they were talking about. By then it was too late and the weighted fist smashed into her face, doing enough damage to cause her to unfuse into her two halves which fell harmlessly to the ground.

With Sugalite defeated no one was holding Onyx to the cliff, and with the battle over she felt much of her energy begin to fade from her body. She fell down and her wings did little less slow her descent before she smacked into the ground, then all of her limbs becoming limp and her crystal wings disappeared.

She thought she felt herself falling asleep, but just as she began to slip into dark bliss a voice brought her mind back forward.

"Onyx…Onyx…"

She opened her eyes and saw a battle wounded Pearl holding Steven in her arms.

"I can't believe you fought Sugalite like that! You were amazing!" Steven congratulated excitedly.

Onyx chuckled at his compliment; she pushed her arms against the ground to bring herself back up on her feet. Her body felt very unsteady so the second she got up she had to lean on Pearl for support; funny, Pearl supported her physically and metaphorically.

"Don't thank me, thank Pearl." Onyx admitted. "If it wasn't for her I would have been killed in a futile battle."

"Onyx…" Pearl was surprised by her sincerity.

"I mean it Pearl. We may butt heads on our ideals, but I can be the bigger gem and admit that I was wrong. Your tactical skills were greater than mine and… you did a great job."

Those words meant a lot to Pearl (Onyx could tell) hearing something positive coming from her was a nice change of pace.

"Well…" Pearl tried to find her voice as she worked past her flustered attitude. "I've got Steven safe and sound. Can you check on Garnet and Amethyst and see if we can get them back inside?"

Onyx nodded. She walked over to the pile of gems that were once Garnet and Amethyst, she leaned and examined their condition; they were in pain, but their gems weren't cracked so they were fine.

"How are you two holding up?" Onyx asked.

"Not great… I got a monster headache." Amethyst replied.

"Yeah, I don't feel too great either."

"Onyx…" Garnet began. "We're sorry. We got out of control and we almost hurt you and Pearl."

Onyx shrugged. "Well you almost ended up killing both me and Pearl, but I also got in quite a few good shots on you two… what's say we call this a draw?"

Garnet said nothing, she only nodded, glad that Onyx wasn't going to hold this confrontation over her head. She had seen a fraction of the power Onyx unleashed when she was angry and Garnet didn't want to be on the receiving end of that.

Garnet sat up and started stretching her tired limbs. "I can get back to the house myself. Let's get everyone back inside, we'll clean all this up after we've rested."

"Agreed." Onyx leaned down and picked up Amethyst, holding her in her arms like Pearl did for Steven. "Come on Amethyst let's get you inside."

She walked towards the beach house with Amethyst who was curling up in her massive hair.

Surprisingly when Onyx took a step she felt her knees give out, she tripped and almost fell but caught herself with one of her legs before she fell over completely.

"Nyx… something wrong?" Amethyst asked.

Onyx looked down at her knees, which seemed to fade in and out of existence for a second before she got up and continued walking.

"No Amethyst, I'm… I'm fine."


	20. Change is good

**What's this? Two chapters in one day? That's right, I feel bad for not updating for so long and this is how I'm making it up to you people. So while you stuff your faces with turkey (I know I will) stuff it with some good writing and I hope you enjoy both.**

Steven tried to get to sleep, it had been a hard day for him and he just wanted to rest… unfortunately something was keeping him up.

He could hear Onyx groaning in pain on the couch. She had laid there since the battle with Sugalite was over and she had been 'sleeping' pretty much the entire time, but it was only a couple of hours ago that she started groaning. Her body and her mind seemed to be fighting her; she was in so much emotional distress that she started forming crystals around her body.

Steven was worried for Onyx's safety; he was afraid of what might happen to her so he poked her in the arm and tried to wake her up.

"Um… Onyx?"

Suddenly, Onyx's eyes shot wide open, she sat up, and she started to scream. When screamed the crystals that were forming around her shot out unexpectedly, creating a jagged crystal bowl around her and embedding some smaller shards into the walls.

After her panic was over she looked down and saw Steven looking at her with scared eyes.

"Steven…" She said breathlessly.

"Onyx, are you okay?"

She took a deep breath before responding. "I'm… I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You were squirming and moaning and you made the crystals and…"

"I'm fine Steven." Onyx said with terseness. "I was just having an unpleasant dream. I'll take care of this stuff, you just go back to sleep."

Reluctantly Steven nodded and turned around, going back upstairs to his bed.

Onyx got up off the couch to remove the crystal from the house but when she tried to stand up she felt her feet go numb and she fell down. When she looked at her feet she saw them flickering in and out of existence.

She knew what this meant but she didn't want it to happen. She focused as hard as she could and then her feet became solid again, then she got up and lifted the crystal off the couch and out of the house. It was hard to do because her entire body felt like it wanted to collapse but she kept pushing on.

"_Come on Onyx, don't give in… you can do this…"_

**The next morning…**

The gems were all in the living room enjoying their morning, Steven was eating breakfast (while Amethyst stole a pancake or two) Pearl was folding Steven's laundry and Garnet was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper.

The only gem left walked out of her room looking rather… disheveled. Her eyes had dark circles under them and seemed to be devoid of life, her long flowing hair was disheveled, and her arms were wrapped around her torso.

The gems took notice of her condition and tried to figure out what was wrong.

"Yo Nyx, you okay?" Amethyst asked with mouth full of pancake.

Onyx ignored her and continued walking towards the fridge; she opened it up and took a gallon of orange juice. She unscrewed the cap and just started chugging away at the material for dear life.

"Onyx…" Steven calmly.

She continued to ignore them and kept drinking.

"Onyx!" Pearl yelled.

That got her attention; she took the juice away from her mouth and screwed the cap back on. Now that she had some food in her life seemed to return to her body, her eyes blinked in new awareness.

"Yes? What's going on?" Onyx felt something churning in her body and looked down at the juice she just consumed. "What is in this liquid? It feels… different."

"Orange juice has a lot of acid in it." Pearl explained. "Bad for human teeth, but I'm unsure of what it does to a gem since I've never consumed it."

Amethyst shrugged "Eh, it's like any other human food. Eat it, drink it, get rid of it, then the cycle repeats."

"Good to know."

Onyx put the juice back in the fridge and walked down into the living room, it seemed like all of her pain had passed but soon enough disaster struck; she felt herself falling again but this time she fell straight through the floor. She used her arms to catch the wooden floor and stop herself from falling through it.

"Onyx!" Steven said.

As Onyx held herself in place, Garnet came over and helped pull her out of the floor.

"What's going on?" Steven asked

When Garnet pulled Onyx out she looked at her legs and saw that they were struggling to stay solid.

"Her physical form is damaged." Garnet said simply.

"What?"

Garnet put Onyx on the couch so she could sit comfortably.

"She took too much damage in the fight with Sugalite yesterday."

"But I thought you said that when your bodies get damaged you just regenerate?"

Garnet nodded. "In most cases, yes, but sometimes gem warriors can hold off regenerating to fight for longer and won't regenerate until they take fatal damage. The downside to this is your physical form begins to become more and more unstable."

Onyx tried to get up off the couch but when she tried to stand her whole body glitched out like a broken computer before returning to normal.

"Just like that."

Onyx staggered and leaned on the couch for support. "I don't need to regenerate, if I rest for a few days I'll be back to normal in no time."

"That's not how it works." Garnet reprimanded. "You need to regenerate to fully refill your energy reserves, without them you'll be nothing more than a flickering mess. You won't be able to help anyone like that."

The seriousness of Garnet's speech made Onyx scared; she looked down at the floor and clenched her hands. She couldn't regenerate, she couldn't.

"Come on Onyx, regeneration can't be that bad can it?" Steven asked innocently.

Onyx nodded. "Yes it can Steven."

"But, when Pearl regenerated-" He began

"When any gem regenerates they are at their weakest." She said grimly. "All it takes is a few seconds for something to crush your gem and then just like that you're gone forever."

The gems were taken aback by her horrifying idea.

"Nothing like that will happen to you." Pearl said.

"Won't it?!" She asked a mixture of fear and anger. "The last time I woke up from a regeneration I didn't know who I was, where I came from, or what my purpose was. If you four hadn't found me in that meteor what would have become of me? Would I have been shattered by anyone else who knew the dangers that a gem possess?"

"But…" Steven said. "We would never do that to you."

Once again Onyx's legs gave out and she fell to the ground, when she tried to get up again she found that she couldn't even feel her limbs so she just crawled over to Steven and grabbed onto his shoulders.

"Steven, I try to think of what regeneration feels like and all I feel is pain and suffering and the burning of being torn apart again and again." She looked him in the eyes and Steven saw that Onyx was crying. "I can't regenerate. I don't want to feel that again."

Steven felt sad for the bigger gem, but he couldn't her do this to herself.

He took one of her hands in both of his hands. "I promise that you'll be fine."

"But-"

"When Pearl was in her gem I took care of her and made sure that she was comfortable, I'll do the same for you."

That relieved Onyx a little bit but she still had one thing to deal with.

"But… what about my horrible visions?"

Steven thought about it for a moment before responding. "If you get scared or hurt just remember that me and the rest of the gems are going to be right here waiting for you, nothing bad is going to happen to you while we're around."

And just like that the fear in Onyx's gem changed into a calm ocean, a vast expanse of calm and serenity. She noticed that Steven had this effect on people; he brought out the more positive sides of their emotional spectrum and made them feel better about themselves.

"Alright, I'll do it, I'll go into my gem to regenerate. Now I just need to-"

Before Onyx could continue Garnet snuck up behind her, summoned her gauntlets, and bopped Onyx on the head so hard that she poofed. As her gem fell to the ground Garnet roe up one of her legs and caught her gemstone on her knee.

"Garnet!" Pearl said in shock and surprise.

"Better that she didn't see it coming." Garnet said simply.

She placed Onyx's gemstone on their coffee table and let it sit their plainly.

"So… how long do you think she'll take?" Steven asked.

"Only time will tell."

**Inside Onyx's gemstone…**

The black expanse, the place she always went in her out of body experiences. Except this time Onyx couldn't even feel her own presence.

"_I…I'm nothing."_

She tried to move her body, her face, her eyes, anything that would let her examine her conditions; but she was just an energy ball stuck inside this infinite void.

She was content to sit here until it was her time to come back but then she saw something appear before her: three big pink cylinders with a crystal base that held them up.

"_What are those?"_ Onyx asked herself.

Then the cylinders tilted forward and their tops unfurled to reveal three pink rosebuds that glowed with light and power.

"_And why am I suddenly afraid for my life?"_

The rosebud's grew brighter and brighter until what they had been storing was unleashed, a triple laser beam that came right at Onyx and blasted her directly. Despite not seeing her physical body she still felt pain, she still felt the burning of the laser, and she could still hear voices screaming in her mind but she didn't know if these voices were hers or someone else's

"**Enough."**

Just when the pain seemed too much to take a figure descended in front of her, bathed in pure white light with angelic wings it deflected the laser like it was nothing. The figure raised an arm to block the energy beam and sent a pulse through it that went back to the source and destroyed it.

With its mission accomplished the figure turned around, but its face was just as featureless as the back of its body.

"**Hello, my gem."**

Onyx wanted to say something, anything to thank it from saving her from the pain but she realized that she had no mouth and couldn't vocalize her thoughts.

"**No need to be afraid, I come to you as a friend."**

Onyx searched deep inside herself and finally she found her voice.

"W-who are you?" She asked.

"**I am you, an aspect lost to the ages."**

"You're me? Does that mean you know who I am? Where I came from?"

The figure shook its head. **"As I said, that part of you is lost. Millenniums of stasis have locked away the memories that you would be better off forgetting."**

"But…but I need to figure out where I came from. I need to remember."

The figure pointed off in the distance. **"Your attempts to remember only cause you more pain, I believe those cannons were a sign of that."**

"Cannons?"

"**They are known as laser light cannons, they were used in the gem war for Earth."**

Then Onyx had a realization. "You do remember! You knew their names even though I did not."

Despite not having a mouth the figure manage to sigh. **"The process of recovering memory is slow, and each time I seem to unlock something it only reveals another atrocity. I will not put you through that; better to keep dark secrets buried than reveal the ghosts of the past."**

"No! If I find out what happened in my past I can change myself, forge a new path and right my wrongs. If you have my memories, please give them to me."

"**But does it really matter where you came from?"**

The figure waved its hand and it created an image of Onyx with all the gems, she looked happy and content.

"**These gems have brought you peace and discovery, through them you have learned to be yourself without any knowledge of who you once were. This is you in your rawest state, do you really wish to give this up?" **

"No… but if I want to understand myself I need to know my whole story, even the parts that you or I may not wish to remember. I'll take everything, good and bad, and power through it."

The figure was silent for a time but Onyx could feel something coming off of it, pride maybe?

"**Very well, your desire to learn is stronger than I thought, despite being subjected to cellular deconstruction. All your memories will be restored in time; continue trying to discover them and I promise all will be unlocked."**

"Thank you."

"**But for right now why don't I remind you how to regenerate?"**

"Umm…yes, that would be very helpful."

"**Very well, let us look upon you."**

The figure waved its hand and created a mirror, with that Onyx was finally able to see herself but all she could see was her gemstone suspended in midair.

"I'm… just a stone."

"**A stone with infinite potential. You must visualize your potential and all that you may become. Think of your form and then take it."**

Onyx tried to imagine what she was like before: Her gray skin, her long flowing black hair, her jumpsuit, and her boots. She appeared before herself looking just like she did before, but for some reason she felt… unsatisfied.

"I don't… like my form anymore."

"**Oh? And why is that?"**

"It… feels too alien. If I am going to live on Earth now I want something different, something that feels more human but also something I could like."

"**So which form would you like to take?"**

"I want to be… strong."

As Onyx thought this her body grew an extra foot and became incredibly muscular.

"But I don't want to be scary."

She shrunk by half a foot.

"I want to look confident."

She grew a white shoulder cape that went down her forearm.

"But I don't want to look like I'm above people. I want something more casual."

Her outfit changed to a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Maybe something like Amethyst's outfit…"

She changed to Amethyst's sleeveless shirt with sweatpants and white boots.

"But this is her look and I can't take it. I can't…ugh!"

Onyx became frustrated to the point that all the details from her form disappeared, now she was just a rapidly shifting form of light.

"What's going on with me?" She asked.

"**Your indecisiveness is causing your form to fluctuate. However, this means that if you can focus hard enough you should be ready to completely regenerate."**

"But I don't have a form in mind, how will I look when I come out?"

"**It doesn't matter. Sometimes you can't have everything mapped out; you of all gems should understand this. Just keep close to your mind the traits that you want your form to take and the rest will be handled by the regeneration process. Can you handle that?"**

Onyx nodded her head. "I can try."

"**Excellent, now to fully regenerate you need to draw energy into your gemstone, then when you feel the power at its peak you release it and you will reappear in the physical plane."**

Onyx understood and she did exactly as the form asked, she drew upon her inner strength and tried to make it build higher and higher. When the gem in her chest felt like a burning star of energy she expelled it all at once and she could see her dark surroundings beginning to turn to light, as she began to fade away her guardian looked at her and spoke four simple words.

"**We will meet again."**

As Onyx felt herself leaving she focused on the words that would embody her form: Earthy, comfortable, cool, and star.

In what seemed like an instant Onyx felt herself falling and she landed back in the beach house's living room, both legs landed on the ground stably. As she got a feel for her body she curled her hands together and noticed how different they felt.

"Wow, I feel… good… great… better than myself." She ran a hand up and down her arm. "Have I gotten even stronger than before?"

As she wondered to herself she heard the warp pad behind her activate, all the gems were coming back from a mission and weren't expecting to see her so soon. When Steven realized she was just standing in the room he gasped and smiled, running towards her.

"Onyx is back! Onyx is back!" He cried happily.

Onyx was happy to see him to. "Hey Steven!" As Steven ran towards her she leaned down and grabbed him in her arms, then she swung the both of them around. She didn't know why she was going it, she was just… happy.

"Whoa!" Steven said in surprise. "I guess you're happy to see me to?"

"Very. It's good to be back."

She put Steven back down on the ground and all the gems came to greet her.

"Welcome back." Garnet greeted

"So… how do I look?" Onyx was curious. "I haven't gotten a good look at myself yet."

Pearl put a hand to her chin to try and describe it while Amethyst just looked up at the new gem in front of her. "Well you certainly look different…"

"Is that good different or bad different?"

"Neither. I mean, you don't look bad, if I had to summarize it in one word I would say…"

"Cute." Amethyst said.

Everyone seemed surprised by this.

"Amethyst!" Pearl admonished.

Realizing what she just said Amethyst lightly blushed. "What? She looks totally different from before and that was the first thing I thought of. Can you give me a word to describe it?"

Onyx put both her arms up; she wanted to stop this argument before it really got heated. "Okay, can someone please just show me to a mirror and I'll decide for myself?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah, there's one in my bathroom over there, you can use that."

Onyx stepped to the side and went inside Steven's bathroom; she had never been in this bathroom because she never had to use it before… it was quite homey. When she found the mirror she stepped up and looked herself over, and she had to agree with Amethyst, she was… cute.

Her long hair which was once solid black now had a certain light brown color on the top that created a spotted look that resembled the galaxy, her skin changed from gray to a more flesh like tone like you would see on a typical human, she now had eyebrows which were just simple black lines, her nose was tiny and pointy, her pupils changed from simple black dots and grew into bigger light brown iris', her body suit changed to consist of a chocolate brown top, baggy white pants, a pair of brown loafers, and to tie the outfit together she had a white belt with a large star buckle in the middle.

"I… I love it." She said silently.

When she stepped out of the bathroom she saw Steven rifling through a chest of his things.

"What's Steven doing?" Onyx asked.

"While you were gone, he decided to have something ready for when you came back. It was supposed to be a gift for your return."

Steven found what he needed, his ukulele, and ran down the stairs to pick up where Garnet had left off.

"I had an idea while you were regenerating, something to help welcome you into the group now that you've been here for a little while. Plus, you totally fit in now that you have the star on your outfit."

Onyx smiled, that was the reason why she wanted the star in the first place, she noticed the rest of the gems had them and she should probably change as well if she wanted to fit in.

"Okay, here we go…"

Steve put his hands on his ukulele and began to strum the chords.

_If you're evil and you're on the rise  
You can count on the five of us taking you down  
Cause we're good and evil never beats us  
We'll win the fight and then go out of pizzas  
We…are the Crystal Gems!_  
_We'll always save the day  
And if you think we can't… we'll always find a way.  
That's they the people of this world believe in:  
Garnet, Amethyst, Onyx, Pearl…  
And Steven!_

Hearing that little song meant so much to Onyx, more than she could put into words. As she stood in the center of the room she did the only thing that came to her mind, she put her arms around everyone at once and squeezed them all together.

"How long was I gone?" She asked.

"Two and a half days." Steven responded.

"I don't ever want to be away from you guys for that long ever again."

She felt the gems returning her embrace "Of course… you're part of our family now." Steven said

Family… something she never had before, something that made her feel loved, and something that was definitely worth fighting for.

"Yeah… thanks Steven."

**Quick note: I'm changing the cover image for this story to represent Onyx's new form, hopefully it will be up by the time you read this chapter. If not, you can go check out cutelory's page on deviantart because she was the one who was nice enough to do the picture for me.**

**Or you can check my deviantart page, it should be there to… that's right, I have a deviantart page, but you'll never figure out what it is because you don't know my username.**


	21. Hot stuff

**Spiderwilliam13: Hello all my fans and followers! Sorry I haven't been here for you guys but I've been trying to hibernate to get past this rather cold winter… no such luck.**

**But I decided to come out of my lethargic attitude because today is a very special day.**

**(Pulls out a chocolate cupcake with a candle in the shape of a one sticking out of the top. He brings it over to a height chair where a baby with grey skin, black hair, and a black and white onesie.)**

**Happy birthday Onyx!**

**(The baby giggles and when she is given the cupcake she tears large chunks out of it with her tiny hands and begins shoving it in her mouth.)**

**I can't believe she's one year old already, feels like only yesterday she came crashing into my life. It's been a rollercoaster ride getting up to this point and I promise you people that it is only going to get crazier from here. For now enjoy this chapter celebrating one year of Onyx. **

Onyx decided to relax today, after all the struggle she had gone through recently she felt like she deserved to sit on the couch and just read a nice book. As she was readying she heard the temple door open and when she looked over she saw Amethyst coming out with a grin on her face.

"Onyx." She said to get the gem's attention.

Onyx turned around. "Yeah?"

"I was just wondering… you wanna try out your new body?"

The idea of that confused Onyx; she had no idea what Amethyst was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"Garnet just told me to investigate this cave where we've seen monster activity before and I was curious if you wanted to come with me."

Onyx mused on the idea. "I don't know… I was in the middle of reading a book."

Amethyst flopped over the back of the couch. "Come on! It'll be boring if I go by myself."

Onyx looked at Amethyst; she was making a sad face and to make Onyx go with her but Onyx could resist it… for about 8 seconds.

Onyx sighed as she marked her progress and set down the book. "You are lucky that face is cute."

Amethyst pumped her fists. "Yes! Come on, this'll be quick."

Onyx and Amethyst rushed over to the warp pad and zoomed off to their destination. When they arrived they were in some kind of underground cavern, they began walking around and searched for this mystery monster.

"So what exactly is this thing we're looking for?" Onyx asked.

"It's called a fire agate, we've cleared out tons of them from down here but they keep coming back. They're pretty nasty creatures."

As Amethyst explained their mission Onyx sensed something far away. She put her arm up to signal Amethyst to stop.

"Wait." She commanded.

She could sense something farther down in the cave, something gem in origin. It was still about five meters away and hadn't noticed them yet so they had the opportunity to catch it by surprise.

"What is it?" Amethyst asked.

Onyx summoned a crystal dart and rolled it around in her hand.

"If I'm right, our target."

Onyx threw the dart into the darkness and it sailed away with great speed. The duo waited a second or two and then they got a response.

"RAAAAAAHR!"

"Yep, that is definitely the monster." Amethyst said. "And it sounds angry."

Onyx smirked. "Good."

Amethyst summoned her whip and waited for the thing to come at her, but Onyx just stood confident and motionless.

Soon enough the monster came crawling at them, the fire agate monster looked like what would happen if you took the body of a centipede and stuck some spider legs on the bottom; it had a red splotchy color with yellowy eye and sharp pincers on its head and it's gem attached to its tail.

As it got closer and closer it looked like it was going to run them over, but then in a flash Onyx acted. She lowered her arm, summoned her scythe, grabbed it with both hands and in a flash she slashed upward with enough force to knock the beast over and onto its back.

"Dude…" Was all Amethyst could say. She was impressed that Onyx could act that fast and with so much strength.

Before the two could celebrate the monster shook itself off and got up, pulling its mouth back and spitting something red at the gems.

"Look out!" Amethyst cried.

She pushed Onyx out of the way of the projectile; instead it just hit the ground and began to dissolve straight through the ground.

"It has acid spit?" Onyx asked concerned.

"Not acid, heat. This thing's insides are so hot they melt rock, that's what makes it so dangerous."

"Well then…" Onyx gripped her scythe tightly. "Time to bring its insides outside."

Onyx dashed forward and started attacking the creature again. Now that she knew the monster was spiting dangerous liquids at her she was able to dodge them before closing the gap and slashing the beast in its face. While the monster was being attacked it didn't seem to have the coordination to spit again, and when it seemed like it was going to bite her in half she just jumped up and out of the way.

While up in the air Onyx raised her scythe above her head and prepared to cleave the monster in half. The monster wasn't fast enough to dodge and with one mighty swing she severed its head from the rest of its body, destroying its physical form.

She dissipated her scythe and picked up the monsters gemstone, but as she did she noticed that it was surrounded by some strange red powdery substance.

"What is this stuff?" Onyx asked.

Amethyst sighed. "Great, fire salts."

"Fire salts?"

Amethyst pulled out an empty tube from… somewhere, and scooped up some of the salts into the tube.

"Yeah, this is the stuff that makes their breath so nasty. By themselves they aren't so bad, but they eat this stuff and they get really bad; this guy just ate a little so it wasn't so strong, one time I saw one that ate so much he exploded."

Onyx was surprised at that. "What? I don't believe you."

"I'm serious. Garnet was there, Rose was there, Pearl was there… heck even Greg was there. Ask any one of them, that story is 100% true."

Onyx nodded, remembering to possibly ask about that story later. "Well, with the monster defeated, are we done here? I don't sense any more of those things in the immediate area."

"Hold on just one second…"

Amethyst brought her whip back out and aimed it up on the ceiling; she grabbed onto a stalactite and pulled it down to the ground so hard that it shattered. Once it was in pieces Amethyst picked up a large glowing portion of it and put it in her pocket.

"Alright, now we can go."

With that Amethyst and Onyx returned to the temple where Garnet was waiting for them in front of the warp pad with her arms crossed.

"How did it go?" She asked.

Amethyst sighed. "Those monster things are getting into the igneous rocks again, we might need to go and clear them out before they become a serious problem. But…" Amethyst threw Garnet the big crystal and she caught it. "I got you a nice big rock and Nyx here managed to beat one of those agate monsters all by herself, and this thing already had a good amount of the fire salts so it was a big one."

Garnet smirked. "Nice work you two." Garnet took their place on the warp pad. "I'm going out for a bit, I'll be back later."

Garnet warped away, leaving Amethyst and Onyx alone in the living room.

"Where is she going?" Onyx asked.

"Probably to sell that big rock." Amethyst answered.

Onyx was confused by that. "What? Why?"

Amethyst flopped on the couch. "It's stupid, but humans need money to give each other things. Steven needs food and we need money to pay for food so we sell some of the non-dangerous crystals we find on our adventures; for some reason, humans also really like gems that aren't alive and won't kill them."

Onyx thought about it for a second… and that made no sense to her.

"Humans are weird."

"Yep."

Suddenly Amethyst got up off the couch and her eyes went wide, like she just had an idea.

"Oh wait! I just thought of something." She pulled out the bottle filled with the fire salts. "I know just what to do with this."

And so Amethyst grabbed some money from a drawer and led Onyx out into town. At no point did she explain what she was doing or where they were going so Onyx had to wait and see how events played out.

During their walk Amethyst brought her towards a small stand she had never visited before. Before Onyx could ask a question Amethyst banged on the counter loudly.

"Yo kid, where you at?" She screamed.

After rudely banging her hand on the stand, a small child walked out with long messy blonde locks.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to shout. What do you-"

After revealing his face Onyx realized that she had seen this child before. It was a long time ago, back when she was still fairly new out of her confines, but she did have a fairly good memory and she remembered that she saved this child from that food monstrosity.

"Hello." She said to him.

He seemed to recognize her as well. "Oh, hi. Haven't seen you around in a while."

"Yes, I've been rather busy. It's nice to see you as well…um…" She didn't know his name.

"Peedee, my name's Peedee."

Onyx nodded. "Peedee. It's good to see you as well."

Amethyst waved her hand, as if to speed up the conversation. "Yeah yeah, it's great to see everyone again. Listen, can I get some fries please?"

"Sure thing." He went into the back of the stand and within a few minutes came out with a small container full of fries. "That'll be 3.50"

Amethyst reached into her pockets and pulled out a handful of money, she put it on the table and took the fries while Peedee took the money.

"Thanks a lot. See you later little dude."

Amethyst waved goodbye and moved on to her next target, Onyx followed close behind to see what was going to happen.

As it turns out, Amethyst was looking for Steven. Once she found him she took out the fire salts from earlier and poured it on the fries, when she offered them to Steven he seemed very distraught by the taste and ran off in what seemed like pain.

"Amethyst! You hurt Steven."

"No I didn't, he's just overreacting."

"Usually when Steven screams and runs around like that it's because he is in danger or in pain."

Amethyst frowned at Onyx's reaction. "I'm just playing around with him, calm the heck down."

Onyx sighed, this was one of the rare times when she found Amethyst's carefree attitude annoying more than endearing.

"Fine, I'm going to go see where Steven ran off to."

And so Onyx walked off, feeling the discontent from Amethyst and her own dissatisfaction with the conversation they just had. Perhaps she reacted too harshly and would need to apologize later, but until then she needed to make sure that Steven was alright.

After walking around town a little bit she was able to pinpoint Steven's location, he was inside The Big donut. She stepped inside and saw that he was perfectly fine, standing next to Sadie behind the counter of the establishment; what was strange was that Steven was wearing a different shirt than the one he left home with.

"Welcome to the Big Donut!" He said excitedly.

"Steven, why are you wearing that shirt? Are you working at this establishment like Sadie?"

"Well, uh… it's an interesting story."

And so Steven explained about how he rushed in here after consuming the fire salts, about how Lars slipped and "hurt" his back, and how he decided to fill in as an assistant for the day.

Just from Steven's story Onyx could tell that Lars was not serious about his injury, given his negative attitude and general laziness this seemed like just an excuse to her.

"If I'm honest I believe that Steven would make a much better work associate than Lars, if what you're telling me is true." Onyx stated.

Sadie didn't seem to like that idea. "I can't just do that. Lars may not be… great at his job but… I( like him. He's a really nice guy when you get to know him."

Onyx looks at Sadie with dead seriousness. "Sadie I've met Lars all of four times and I can tell you for certain that I don't like him."

Sadie just groaned and turned away from her. "Well… I like him and that's all that matters." Sadie got down from her place and grabbed a box of donuts. "In fact, I say we should do something nice for him and deliver him some donuts."

Steven smiled. "That sounds like a great idea."

And so the two small humans and the gem made their way into town to deliver a box of donuts to someone who, in Onyx's opinion, was rather low on the spectrum of humanity. Sadie led the trio through the various houses in town and after walking a few blocks she brought them to where Onyx assumed Lars lived.

But before they could ring the bell Steven noticed a vehicle parked outside the house.

"Hey, I think Lars already ordered some pizza."

Onyx saw the vehicle and she nodded. "That is the vehicle of the pizza child and her friends. I wonder what that's doing here."

They didn't have to wonder long as they could hear laughter coming from the other side of the building. When the snuck around to investigate they could see that Lars was jumping and playing with his friends merrily, an action definitely not for someone who had recently injured themselves… unless of course they had faked the injury like she expected.

"I don't believe it, he was faking this whole-"

Steven was outraged by the incident, that much Onyx could tell, but when she turned around to look at Sadie she saw something… more on her face. She knew what anger and sadness looked like but Sadie's feelings seemed to be much deeper than that and since she wasn't a gem Onyx had no idea what to do or how to help her. Overcome by her emotions she ran off and then Onyx knew what she needed to do.

"Go to her Steven." She asked. "You have a talent for calming down others."

"What are you going to do?" He asked, unsure.

Onyx turned around again to look at Lars. "I'm going to… speak with Lars."

Steven wasn't sure he believed Onyx wouldn't do anything bad, but Sadie needed his help at that moment so he ran off and trusted that Onyx wouldn't do anything too brash. When he left Onyx stepped out from her hiding spot and started walking towards Lars with purpose in her steps, her face showed little emotion and she didn't say a word. By the time they noticed her presence, it was too late for Lars.

"Yo, is that Onyx over there?" Jenny asked.

All the teens looked over in curiosity, but Lars was the only one who didn't enjoy her presence.

"I think it is… does she look different to you guys?" Sour Cream wondered.

"Yeah. I think she got a new top or something. Looks pretty rad." Buck gave his opinion.

"Mhm." Jenny agreed. "It looks good on her."

When she reached them they all got off the trampoline to talk to her but Lars stood perfectly still.

"What's going on?" Sour Cream asked.

"I just wish to talk to Lars."

She stepped closer to Lars, with both of them standing on this bouncy surface now he had no way of escaping her.

"What do you want?" Lars asked with venom in his voice.

Onyx realized she didn't have to be nice when talking to Lars… and for some reason that made her happy and made her smile with a toothy grin.

"You like bouncing around Lars? Then let's bounce."

She grabbed him by the arm and before he or anyone else could question it she leaped up, faster and higher than any of them were capable of. When he realized what was happening Lars started screaming in terror while Onyx remained stone faced.

"Why did you lie?" She demanded.

"What?" Lars asked, unable to fully understand what he was hearing.

"I asked why you left your work under false reasons!"

Soon the duo reached the peak of their jump (after traveling about 45 feet) and then began falling back down to the ground.

"Are you serious right now? That's the reason why you're terrorizing me?"

Onyx's eyes went blank and she grinned bigger. "Do I look like I'm kidding?"

That only made Lars scream louder as they approached the ground ad just when it looked like they were going to crash Onyx summoned her new wings and slowed their descent so they landed softly and without breaking the trampoline.

Onyx let go of Lars, who was now holding on to her for dear life, and he dropped onto the trampoline. As he looked up at her with horror her iris' returned and she issued him a warning.

"You have once chance to make this right and apologize. I suggest you take it"

And with that she dissipated her wings and walked off with another word. She left everyone speechless, either out of fear or shock because of her insanely cool action that she just preformed.

As she made her way back to the temple Onyx tried to get these negative thoughts out of her head, she was trying to live a better life and yet still she was filled with so much rage and desire to fight. She needed a distraction, and no one was better at distracting her than Amethyst.

"You want to do something fun?" She asked. 'Well… let me show you this place Steven took us."

And so Amethyst introduced Onyx to, what she called "The Arcade" She explained that it was filled with games which people like Steven play for fun. Onyx was hesitant at first but when Amethyst showed her to a machine called "Pac man" she eventually gave in… if only to defeat those troublesome ghosts.

Onyx actually had so much fun that Amethyst took her there the next day and they had even more fun. Although when they returned from their adventure they both got a serious yelling at from, obviously, Pearl. As it turns out Pearl learned that Amethyst had recklessly given Steven the fire salts from yesterday and when he used them it caused panic in the town. Onyx also got chewed out because Lars told Steven about what Onyx did and Steven told Pearl; Pearl told Onyx that that was an "improper way to behave" and that "gems should never hurt humans, they're here to protect them" even though she didn't hurt Lars one bit.

After their verbal berating Pearl went off to do her things and she and Amethyst were just relaxing on the couch. Things seemed stale but Amethyst eventually spoke up to break the silence.

"Hey."

Onyx looked over.

"About what happened with that kid… I don't think Pearl should have yelled at you for that."

Onyx sighed. "Perhaps. But I suppose it was wrong of me to scare him half to death."

"No it wasn't. You were just trying to do what you wanted, what you thought was right; it's not like Pearl understands it or needs to understand it for you to want it."

Onyx chuckled a bit to herself. Is that what Amethyst feels like all the time? No wonder she acts out. Sometimes you need to break a few rules if it means doing what's right… at least that's how she interpreted it.

**Spiderwilliam13: Ah, good times.**

**(He is holding baby Onyx in his arms, bouncing her up and down gently while she giggles to herself.)**

**That's you darling, you're gonna grow up and become a great fighter just like your daddy. You're gonna be big and strong and maybe one day you'll have a little one all your own. Would you like that?**

**Baby Onyx: Ama! Hagababa! Pfffft!**

**Spiderwilliam13: You're right, we'd better go check on your brothers.**

**Thank you everyone for sticking by my side, inspiring me to create what is now my most popular story. I promise things will only get more exciting from here and things will be coming your way that will rock your mind.**

**Until then, be well, enjoy your days, and go play FNAF World; I downloaded it, it's free, and if you enjoy hard as balls RPG's you will love it. Goodbye!**


	22. Chrono-break

**God, why does it take a month for me to put out anything? And this isn't even that important! I still have to do "Monster Buddies" and the Lapis two part episode; at least those will be exciting. For now just sit back and watch Onyx's journey through an episode (which when I re-watched is WAY more messed up than I originally thought, all those dead Stevens…ugh.)**

Today, the gems told Onyx what they were going to retrieve today and she still couldn't believe it: a gem artifact that controlled time. She knew gems were strong and she had seen that old gem technology was advanced… but she didn't imagine that it could go that far.

To find the device they needed to go to an underwater sea base and pick through dozens of imitations in order to find the real one. This wasn't an easy task for any of them; they knew of the device's existence but records about it were short to nonexistent so they had no idea what it looked like.

Onyx saw all of the devices and she was afraid to take one because she was informed that if she chose the wrong one the entire temple would collapse on itself. Even the thought of taking the right one scared Onyx a little bit, what if the power to control time got into the wrong hands? The possibilities were… startling.

Onyx didn't have to decide for too long though because Amethyst grabbed one of the devices recklessly and the entire temple began to collapse. In a rush she grabbed as many of the devices as she could carry in her arms, then ran back to the warp pad. All the gems were ready to go but Steven was still running back in order to get the one he liked the best.

Onyx wanted to get Steven out of here, before he was trapped under intense water pressure or he ends up drowning. She put all of the devices that she had gathered into Pearl's arms and then rushed forward to pick up Steven and bring him back to the warp pad, but as she ran back the water started flooding in and within seconds Onyx's ankles were buried in it.

To make matters worse when Onyx tried to pull Steven to safety he was grabbed by… another Steven?

"Stop right there! Give me the time thing, Steven." He demanded.

Seeing that sent Onyx's head spiraling. "Another Steven? How is that-"

"Just hurry up and give it!"

Before either one of them could take the thing from Steven's hands dozens of other Steven's started appearing and they got lost in the chaos. As the small children started arguing amongst each other the strength of the walls began to get weaker and weaker so Onyx rushed to the wall, placed her hands on it, and started creating crystal barriers to try and plug up the holes.

These Stevens seemed oblivious to what was going on around them, and since there were almost twenty of them in the room it was very unlikely that they were going to get this problem settled, none of the other gems were trying to fix the problem either because they were also in shock.

But just when things looked like they were going to get even worse…

"STOP IT!" She heard a Steven shout; she turned around and saw the only Steven that looked different than the other ones. "Look around you! This isn't right!"

He leaned down and picked up their Steven, the one who was still wearing his jacket.

"When Steven fights Steven, who is the winner? What have we become?" He asked dramatically.

All the other Steven's understood what he meant while the crystal gems still remained confused. It seemed like Steven had done something that caused him to create clones of himself and that created a conflict between them. Or perhaps he will do something that causes these events… time travel is confusing.

"We are not the Stevens we once were. And to fix that... I HAVE TO END IT!"

That Steven pulled something out of his pocket, the small sphere that Steven wanted to take with him (Which Onyx realized must be the original time sphere). He threw it onto the ground and stepped on it and when it broke the Steven's began to scream and turn to dust.

The image was horrifying for everyone to watch as each Steven was destroyed and scattered into the wind. Onyx could feel all of them being destroyed at once and it was almost overwhelming, she felt herself choking on fear. Soon enough only two Steven remains, the one with big hair whispered into their Steven's ear and then he turned to dust just like the rest.

Everyone was emotionally devastated, but that didn't stop the walls of the temple from caving in; Onyx and Steven were in so much shock that Garnet had to extend her hands and pull them both onto the platform so they could teleport away.

Once they were back in the temple everyone was silent, they were extremely unsure of what to make of the situation. Pearl was the first to break the silence.

"So… the mission was a success then?" She asked.

Onyx sighed. "The glass was destroyed so no one will be able to use it again. That part was successful, but it still caused a lot of trouble and… damage."

All the gems looked down at Steven who seemed like he was a million miles away; Garnet put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him with assumingly concerned eyes.

"Steven… are you okay?" She asked tenderly.

He paused for a second and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'll be fine. That was just-"

Before Steven could continue they heard a cat shaped alarm clock go off and Steven gasped in realization.

"Oh my gosh, Beach a Palooza!"

"Beach a what?" Amethyst asked.

"What's a palooza?" Onyx asked

Steven scrambled to get some of his stuff together. "It's this big event going on tonight; I need to go rehearse with dad. See you guys later!"

He rushed out of the house on his scooter and ran down the staircase to head into town.

"Well… he seems to be taking it pretty well." Amethyst said.

Pearl nodded her head. "Yes, much better than I thought he would."

As Onyx was still trying to wrap her head around what happened she saw… flashes, things that look like they happened but she has no memory of them happening to her.

"There's a lobster on your butt." Onyx said.

"What?" Pearl seemed shocked, but when she turned around there was nothing there. "No there isn't! Why would you say that?"

Onyx just shook her head trying to get the thought out of her head.

"Nothing. Listen I'm gonna go follow Steven."

"What? Why?"

Onyx opened the door to try and run out. "Steven isn't over this, and neither am I. Spending some time with him would make me feel better."

She ran out of the house and headed down the steps so she could catch up with Steven on his little scooter.

Pearl smiled a bit sadly to herself. "And she complains whenever I get to clingy."

"You didn't have to watch yourself die." Garnet said simply.

Pearl wanted to make a retort to that but she just shut her mouth and thought about it.

**In the city…**

Steven was scooting along on his scooter when all of a sudden he saw Onyx walking up beside him.

"Onyx, what are you doing out here?"

She just shrugged. "I was bored and felt like hanging around my favorite little person."

That seemed to make him happy. "I'm your favorite?"

She nodded. "Yep, even more so than Amethyst, and you know how short she is."

Steven laughed at her joke, this is what she wanted, to make him happier because once he was happy she could be happy and they could put today's incident behind them. It's one thing to see monsters that could destroy you, but it's another to watch yourself be destroyed.

The duo soon arrived at the carwash but when they got there they saw a boat stuck in the entrance to the carwash.

"_What's going on over there?"_ Onyx wondered.

They rushed over to see what the problem was and were met by Greg and a man in a yellow jacket that Onyx had never met before.

"Dad! Dad!" Steven cried out.

Greg turned around to see his son pulling up. "Oh hey Steven, what's up?"

"Actually we're more curious with what's going on here." Onyx asked.

Greg sighed. "We got ourselves into quite a pickle here. The boats stuck in the entrance to the carwash."

"Why does a boat need a carwash in the first place?" Steven asked.

The man in the yellow jacket mumbled some incoherent sounds and walked closer to inspect the damage. Onyx couldn't understand a word of what he said but it was clear that he was invested in this boat.

She leaned over to Greg. "Can you understand anything that man is saying?"

"Yellowtail? I admit he's a bit of an… odd duck, but once you get to know him he's quite nice."

"Why haven't I seen him around before?"

"Well he spends most of his time out on the ocean catching fish so he only spends a few days in town before he goes back out again."

Onyx nodded. "Interesting." She looked at the stuck boat in the carwash and tried to think of a solution. "Any ideas for how to get it out?"

He shook his head. "Nah, this might take a while."

Steven butted in. "But what about Beach a Palooza? The whole town's gonna be there!"

"Steven, that's like 15 people." He tussled Steven's hair. "Next time, bud. I promise."

Greg walked away to help Yellowtail and Steven pouted a little bit. "Stupid boat, being too fat for the… oh my gosh!"

Onyx was confused at Steven's sudden change in attitude. "What is it?"

"The boat's too fat! Before the other Steven… disappeared he said that dad couldn't play Beach a Palooza with me because the boat's fat! This is what he meant!"

Onyx nodded in understanding. "That means that Steven experienced all these things before he tried to stop you."

Steven nodded.

"So… what are you going to do now?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I can't play Beach a Palooza by myself; I need some kind of backup."

Then Onyx had a wonderful idea that could fix both of their problems.

"I think I know three gems who would love to help you put on a show for Beach a Palooza and do a really good job in the process."

"Really?" Steven seemed excited but then he made a note in his head. "Wait, only three gems? What about our fourth?"

"All I know how to play is guitar and that's your instrument, it would seem a bit redundant to have two guitar players in one band. Also, if I stay here I can probably help your dad and Yellowtail get this boat out of the carwash with enough time for him to go see you at the Beach a Palooza."

Steven nodded again. "Alright, I'll do it! Thanks Onyx."

He started scooting back to the house as Onyx waved goodbye. Once he was out of sight she turned around and started talking to the men who were still having a hard time getting the boat out of the door.

"Any luck?" She asked.

Greg just sighed and shook his head. "None. This boat won't budge and if we used the truck to pull it forward the chain will probably break first."

Onyx put a hand to her chin and examined the situation for herself. She saw that the boat was stuck in the door to the point that the metal was mashing together and that's why it was so hard to get out. She had a plan, but it would be pretty difficult.

"What if we bend the wall?"

Greg and Yellowtail looked at her like she was crazy. "What?"

"The wall here is the reason why the boat can't get out, if we peel this wall back and make some space for the boat to move then we might be able to get it out."

"How in the world are we going to bend steel?" Greg asked.

Onyx put her hands together and stretched her fingers. "That's where I come in."

She walked towards the door and put her hands on the frame between the boat and the wall.

"Mphhm! Hmphmhph!" Yellowtail tried to complain.

"Sir I have no idea what you're saying." She said honestly. "Just get in your vehicle and when I give the word drive forward."

He harrumphed but still did as the gem said; he got in his truck and turned on the engine.

Now it was Onyx's turn, she began pulling on the wall with all of her super human strength but she couldn't feel it budge an inch. She reapplied her grip and pulled harder and harder but the manmade metal refused to give any way.

"_Come on!"_ She yelled to herself. _"Monsters fall to my strength; a simple wall should be nothing for me."_

As Onyx pulled harder and her frustration grew, crystals began to form around her hands making protective gloves that eventually grew to cover her entire hands in sharp crystal. Then in a burst of rage she pulled hard enough to move the wall a few inches out.

Greg noticed this and took it as his que. "She's got it! Hit it Yellowtail!"

Yellowtail pressed on the gas pedal and drove the vehicle forward, it seemed like it wasn't going to move but with the wall out of the way it only faltered for a moment before pulling out of the entrance. The boat was now free, and save for a few scratches on the side, it was fine.

"Alright Onyx you can let it go now." Greg called back.

When Onyx registered what Greg had said she stopped pulling and realized what she was doing, with her job done she pushed the wall forward and put it back in its original spot. She wiped her head and almost hurt herself on the sharp crystal claws she had made. She stared down at the claws, almost… transfixed; they reminded her of something, something…

"Whoa. So that's a thing you can do huh?"

Greg's question got Onyx out of her stupor; she looked up at his curious face and then back down to her hands.

"Yes." She clenched her hands tight enough that the crystal around them cracked and then shattered into fragments and fell to the ground.

"Well… you got that boat out for me when I had no idea how to. Thanks."

Onyx sighed and smiled at Greg. "No trouble. Glad I could help."

"So, any plans for the rest of the day?"

Onyx shrugged. "Well Steven is off forming a new band with the gems. I would like to join them, but all I know how to play is guitar and with Steven playing his ukulele it felt like practically the same thing. Besides he needs some time to bond with the gems, we don't know how long it'll be until we need to go on another mission."

Greg put a hand up to his beard and thought about what Onyx said, and then he had a bright idea.

"Hey Yellowtail! Why don't you head home? We're done for the day."

"Hrpmph! Hememehheme."

"I'll wash the boat tomorrow but I need to do something right now, just come back later."

Yellowtail drove off and Greg turned back towards Onyx.

"Step into my office."

Onyx followed Greg to his van near the back of the building; he opened it up and started rummaging through it.

"So what do you want from me Greg?" She asked.

"Well since you helped me get the boat out when I had no idea how and you gave up hanging out with the rest of the gems for little old me, I think it's only fair you get a reward."

"What?" Onyx put up her hands defensively. "No no that's not necessary Greg; I do my actions out of the interest of others, not for selfish reasons."

"Well you wanted to play in the band with the gems right?"

Onyx nodded.

"Well then I think…" Greg pulled out a sleek black metal guitar from his van. "It's time for an upgrade!"

Onyx was surprised that Greg had this instrument in the back of his vehicle. "What is it?"

"It's my electric! This baby is louder and more energetic than my normal guitar and I'm going to teach you how to play it."

Greg handed the guitar to Onyx and she held it in her hands, it felt heavier than her other guitar but it seemed…cooler.

"Now let me hook this thing up to my amp so we can really get rocking!"

After connecting two wires a low hum could be heard coming from the van, everything was ready.

"Alright, now give it a strum and see what you can do."

Remembering her lessons with her other guitar Onyx put her hands in the correct places and strummed a simple G chord, but when it came out the air seemed to shriek and a shockwave went through Onyx's body. It was electric.

"Oh… this is going to be good." She thought to herself.

**Several hours later…**

Onyx had learned the ins and outs of electric from Greg and she was now trying to make her own rock and roll song. She was making up words as she went along, her mind trying to keep up with her mouth while not overloading on the sensations of excitement going through her body.

_See my problems, punch them faster. Fists are heralds of disaster.  
Power chopping, bodies dropping, Violence is my only master.  
Time has come for retribution, I can see but one solution:  
Strike until my obstacles are shattered, this is my conclusion.  
I care not for prey I'm hunting, evil knows my fists are coming  
See this as an invitation, witness power, domination.  
From darkness I shall liberate the ones who suffer and dismay.  
Whenever there's a baddie in the way I will save the day!_

She finished her ballad with a quick guitar solo and then with one final power chord the whole van resonated with energy and she was done. Although she could feel the friction between the metal strings and her fingers they did not hurt, but she suspected they would if she had flesh and blood hands like humans.

When she finished Greg clapped really hard and loudly. "Yeah! I knew you were metal the second I saw you, that was awesome!"

Onyx smiled and put the guitar down. "Thank you. I admit this is a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and it's been a good way to help get my mind off of things."

"What things?"

Realizing her slip up, Onyx debated whether or not she should tell Greg what happened. On the one hand it may unnerve him like it did the rest of the gems, but on the other hand… Steven was his son and he had the right to know if this was going to affect Steven.

"Well… let me tell you a story about the disturbing world that is a gems existence."

And so Greg and Onyx sat down in the van Onyx relayed the story of what happened that day and Greg seemed just as shocked at what happened as they had.

"Oh my gosh…" He was almost speechless.

"I know, I expect weird things to happen fighting monsters but-"

"This is just like an episode of Nurse What!"

"…What?"

Greg reaches into the back of his van and pulls out a DVD box with a woman on the front wearing light blue doctor scrubs and a top hat.

"The adventures of Nurse What. It was this cool British TV show that was on when I was a kid; so this nurse has a time traveling tool shed and she goes all through time and space looking for adventure and people to help."

"But she's just a nurse, how much could she help people?"

"Well she's not really a nurse, that's just what she calls herself."

"She calls herself just The Nurse?"

"Pretty much."

"That's… weird."

Greg seemed really excited as he began explaining it. "Oh you don't even know the half of it! There was all this talk about dimensions and aliens and time paradoxes."

"Time paradoxes?"

"Yeah that's basically what happened here."

"Greg, I'm going to be honest with you for a moment: Gems come from a far off planet and we're supposed to have access to hyper advanced ideas and technology. However, I have none of that so if you could please explain that to me I would very much appreciate it."

Greg smiled. "All right, it goes a little something like this: Let's say you dropped an ice cream cone so you go back in time to stop yourself from dropping the ice cream cone. That seems good, but that means that now you have no reason to go back in time and stop yourself from dropping that ice cream cone and so the you that traveled back just "poof" doesn't exist anymore."

Onyx nodded in understanding and tried to make his statement more concise. "So what you're saying is that by doing an action and then canceling that action you cancel out a possibility in the timeline?"

Greg shrugged. "I guess so."

"And the other Steven's ceased to exist… but our timeline remained the same. I wonder what would happen if something we did changed how events played out. Would we even remember it?"

Onyx's questions were getting a little too deep and depressing for Greg so he decided to change the subject on her.

"Hey, Beach a Palooza is going to be starting soon. Why don't you and me head down and see if we can catch Steven's act?"

Onyx nodded and gave a small smile. "Yeah, that sounds nice."

So Greg and Onyx made their way down the beach and saw all of the performances at the Beach a Palooza, including Steven and the Crystal Gems. They made a very good group and the music they created was really good, Onyx was sort of glad that she decided not to join the group.

It was more fun to watch and… she liked their dynamic as four.

**So, there may be some really really REALLY light foreshadowing in this chapter for what's going to happen in the future. Or maybe it's obvious and I'm just not as clever as I think I am. Either way, leave a review with your speculations or call me out directly or I'll probably respond. Until next time, enjoy your day!**


	23. A Gem Bug's Life

**(Galaxy Knight sits at his desk, crying into his keyboard. As he cries, Bedlam pokes his head through the door and walks up to the crying man.)**

**Bedlam: Dad… you doing alright in here?**

**(GK sniffles and shakes his head no.)**

**Bedlam: Are you upset because you're incapable of writing another chapter due to your laziness?**

**GK: No**

**Beldam: Are you sad because the last two weeks of Steven Universe episodes have been punching you in the gut with feels?**

**GK: No.**

**Bedlam: Well then, what has you so upset?**

**(GK pointed at the screen.)**

**GK: I just wrote the last chapter of this story.**

**Bedlam: Oh come on, it can't be that bad.**

**(One chapter later…)**

**(GK and Bedlam are now holding each other and crying.)**

**Bedlam: "Whimper" Why? Why would you do something like this?**

**GK: Because… deep down I'm a horrible person.**

**Bedlam: I know that! You don't need to end it like that just to piss off all your fans though.**

**GK: I'm sorry! It seemed like a logical conclusion.**

**(Bedlam and GK continue sniffling until Beldam peers beyond the fourth wall. He starts shaking GK.)**

**Bedlam: Dad, dad, pull yourself together. The people are waiting.**

**(GK looks up.)**

**GK: Wh-what?**

**Bedlam: Yeah, I think they've been waiting for a long time.**

**(GK shoots up.)**

**GK: Oh crap! Um… um…**

**(GK starts leaving through a stack of papers.)**

**GK: Here!**

**(He throws the papers at you and they begin to transform.)**

Onyx didn't know what it felt like to be cold, gems didn't have the necessary skin or nerve endings to feel cold or heat like humans did. She considered this a good thing, because if she could feel cold she would probably be freezing after that cave in.

The gems were going after a powerful artifact today, like the time sphere before this one, but this time it wasn't an abstract power it was pure energy, at least that's the way it had been explained to her. They also mentioned that a monster would probably be guarding the stone since they were drawn to the power it emitted; that, and the stone was inside of an ice cave which threatened to collapse on them at any second.

After taking one especially powerful punch from the ice monster, Onyx got knocked into a wall and that got her buried under the pile of snow that started this story. As quickly as she could, Onyx got up and shook all the snow off her body before rushing back into the fight with the rest of the gems; Garnet was doing most of the damage while Pearl and Amethyst were trying to block and dodge the monsters attacks and keep its attention. Steven was with them as well, but since he couldn't really fight he stood back and observed the battle taking place.

"Garnet! Set me up!" Onyx screamed.

Garnet nodded, continuing her assault on the monster so it would be weak enough for the killing blow. When Onyx got close enough, she summoned a scythe and used her powers to add crystal to the blade, making it bigger and heavier until it was at least three feet long.

With one powerful punch Garnet knocked the monster into the wall so hard that its arms popped off, taking that as her cue Onyx pulled back and started spinning around as fast as she could.

"Whirling Death!" She screamed out.

She let the blade go and it soared toward the monster, spinning fast enough that when it made contact with the monster's body it cut it straight through and cut the monster in half. That blow was enough to destroy the monster's physical form and its gem fell to the ground, shortly after that the scythe she had created dissipated as well.

With the monster defeated Pearl bubbled the gem away and sent it back to the temple.

"There, no nothing is standing between us and the Shooting Star."

Just as Pearl said that a loud crack was heard and the cave started rumbling.

"How about an avalanche? Could that stop us?" Amethyst asked sarcastically.

"Perhaps." Onyx responded.

Large chunks of snow started falling from the ceiling and one completely buried Amethyst.

"Don't worry Amethyst, I'll get you out." Steven said.

Steven tried to dig her out but it was taking too much time so Onyx just reached her arm in and pulled Amethyst out by the hair.

"No time Steven, keep running."

The team ducked and dodged the falling ice and snow but it was getting too much to handle.

"We need to get Steven out of here." Garnet said.

"But how do you-" Steven began to wonder but Garnet picked him up quickly and placed him inside a bubble. "Garnet, you can bubble me? I'm impressed." He said excitedly.

"Garnet no!" Pearl screamed. But in a second Garnet tapped the bubble and sent Steven to safety. "Garnet, how could you-"

"Watch your head."

The ceiling was almost completely cracked now; it wouldn't be long before all of the snow came down on their heads.

"Get down!" Onyx cried.

She grabbed all the gems in her arms and huddled them together just in time for the celling to come crashing down on all four of them, burying them under a ton of ice and snow. For a minute it seemed like all was quiet until-

'shink!'

A black crystal spike protruded from the snow pile, then another and another. Soon the snow was getting pushed off the pile and it was revealed what happened; Onyx had managed to create a crystal shell on her back before the avalanche came down and stopped the other gems from getting buried, she used the spikes to pierce the snow pile and then the rest of the gems helped her push up to get the snow off them.

Once they were clear they dusted themselves off and tried to make their way out of the ice cave, all that snow would be frozen within a minute making it impossible to continue forth anyway.

"Good work today Onyx." Garnet thanked.

Amethyst nodded in agreement and patted the gem on the back. "Yeah, you were really on point today. Super into the fight, naming your moves-"

Onyx had a small blush on her face and rubbed the back of her head. "Well Steven showed me some of his comic books recently and the heroes in it were… interesting, I thought that there was room for improvement in my techniques so I've started experimenting with new moves."

Pearl interrupted. "Yes. Well speaking of Steven, we should get back to the temple before something bad happens to him."

The group got back to the warp pad and teleported to the temple, they quickly made their way to the door and tried to enter the gem chamber.

"Come on Pearl I'm sure he's fine, after all he's-"

"Steven! Get away from that thing!"

It seemed that Steven managed to pop a bubble when he got into the room; next to him on the ground was a little black monster with little circles that make up its body, white fur around sharpened pincers, and its gem seemed to be in its mouth. It didn't look very dangerous because of its size but Onyx knew that size wasn't the only factor.

The group jumped down and drew their weapons to try and take care of this creature.

"If that thing hurt you, so help me I'll-"

"No! It didn't do anything!" Steven screamed. He ran in front of the monster to try and protect it. "Garnet, don't hurt it! I accidentally let it out of its bubble, but it didn't even try to hurt me. It's not like the other monsters; it's just scared and confused. Please Garnet. I'm begging you."

The look in Steven's eyes, the feeling in his heart, they almost overwhelmed Onyx. He was so determined to save a small creature, it was admirable but she was confused why this one was different than the others.

"I can't say no to that face." Garnet said simply. Then she retracted her gauntlets.

"Excuse me?" Pearl asked in an outrage. "You can't be serious!"

Following her lead Onyx spun her scythe around until it dissipated into nothing. "If Garnet trusts Steven then so do I."

Carefully Onyx stepped forward and got down on one knee to get closer to the monster. It hissed at her and looked like it wanted to attack, but she still extended her hand out to the creature…

And it tried to bite her hand off. But thankfully Onyx was quick enough to pull back before that happened.

"Perhaps I should have waited a little bit before trying that."

Garnet nodded. "Steven, see if you can try to tame him."

So with stars in his eyes Steven took the Centipeedle outside for some sort of training and preparation.

Once he was gone she turned to Garnet and sighed. "I can't believe you're letting him do this, who knows what that thing could do to him?"

"Trust me, nothing bad is going to happen to Steven." Garnet replied

After about twenty minutes all the gems were gathered outside, the centipeedle was chained to a rock and it seemed like it really wanted to break free and run wild.

"It seems like it's still angry." Onyx noted.

Steven nodded.

"Yeah, I noticed that. Umm… maybe it would be a bit calmer if you guys left."

The centipeedle eventually pulls so hard that it breaks free from the chain, all the gems were ready to attack it but Onyx stood there impassively. She had a… sneaking suspicion that this gem was all bark and no bite.

"Steven, this thing clearly wants to hurt us. I am not going to leave you alone with it."

"Yes we are." Garnet said, dissipating her gauntlets.

"I'm going to stay." Onyx said.

"Why?"

"Because look at the centipeedle, ever since we've been out here he's been jumping towards you, not me or Steven. He might be less violent; plus… if things go south there's somebody close by to help Steven."

Pearl sighed, but accepted that this is how things were going to go. She, Amethyst, and Garnet went back to the house. Steven walked closer to the creature and seemed to be interacting with it well, once he offered it food it became much calmer to his presence.

After he seemed to get it to behave Onyx walked up to it again.

"Steven, can I try something?"

"Sure, just be careful."

Onyx kneeled down, she looked the Centipeedle in the… well it didn't really have an eye, more like the center of its mouth; either way she focused on the gem and the creature seemed to be staring back at her.

She extended her hand out to it, she could feel his emotional energy permeating the air and interacting with her own. It was… angry, just an angry buzzing constantly with no other emotions or higher functions. The idea that this is what the corrupted creatures felt all the time was a bit frightening, this constant noise and anger would be enough to drive anyone mad.

"You poor thing…"

As Onyx extended her hand the monster growled and flexed its little legs… but it didn't bite like last time. It's growl seemed to be softer and it moved closer to Onyx without malicious intent, it appeared to be… curious.

"That's it… I won't hurt you."

The anger in his body seemed to slow and calm as the monster gently put its head on Onyx's hand, she could feel its soft fur now.

Steven gasped at the gesture. "You did it!"

Onyx shook her head. "No, it was more you than it is me. You got the creature to calm down in the first place, you imprinted on it and left it open for change. I have no doubt that without you this thing would be just as feral as it was before."

Onyx got up from her position, satisfied with the creature's mental stablitiy she took a mighty leap and headed back to the house. She walked into the front door to see the other gems sitting around each other and discussing something or another.

"Onyx, shouldn't you be with Steven to stop him from being hurt by that creature?" Pearl asked.

"I was, until I realized that thing wouldn't hurt Steven."

Pearl groaned. "I don't know where this confidence of yours comes from."

"I understand why I think it won't hurt Steven." Garnet said.

Onyx puts her arms up. "Look, both of you, this creature may be a monster and like all the other monsters I've seen it is angry and confused. But, Steven's influence has made it more docile, I know this to be true."

As it turned out… Onyx was only half right. Steven had definitely made the rapture calmer, but when it stepped into the house it started spitting acid and caused damage to the house itself. It was still bothered.

The creature spit acid into the air and it looked like it was going to hit Amethyst. Onyx saw this and reacted.

"Amethyst, look out!"

Onyx rushed to try and push Amethyst out of the way; she succeeded but was still in the acid's path. It splashed over her arm and the pain was great, she grit her teeth and tried not to let it get to her… she didn't want to lose control on front of everyone.

"Onyx! Are you okay?" Amethyst asked in concern.

Onyx steadied her breathing and after a second she exhaled.

"I'm fine Amethyst, a bit burned but I'll survive.

Pearl seemed all too eager to interject. "I told you this was a bad idea, that thing is clearly still a menace."

"No! He didn't mean it." Steven defended.

"Steven, you can't honestly tell me-"

"That thing is still a monster." Onyx said simply. "It's perceptions of reality are different from yours or mine and its actions are unpredictable."

Onyx wasn't even thinking about it, but already the marks on her arm was starting vanish and were being replaced by her usual dark skin.

"You still got hurt." Amethyst said.

"I'll be fine, this acid spitting isn't too much of a problem yet."

"No, as a matter of fact…" Garnet interrupted. "I think this could really help us."

The gems were confused until Garnet explained her plan, they were to use the monster's acid to melt through the snow that barricaded the entrance to the Shooting Star; this would not only clear a path for them, but it would be much safer than punching their way through and possibly causing a complete cave in.

And so this was how it went, until finally they reached the center of the caver; the Shooting Star hovered above a pool of water, Onyx could feel the power radiating off of it and… it was almost startling how much energy was contained inside of this gem.

"Alright…" Onyx started putting crystal around her hand. "I'll put this thing inside a shell and then we can get out of here."

Before she could contain the Shooting Star, however, Pearl blocked her from touching it. "I'm not sure if your crystal will be strong enough to hold it. Garnet, why don't you use your gauntlets instead?"

Garnet nodded. She summoned her gauntlets but before she could take the star the Centipeedle started freaking out.

"What's it doing?" Amethyst asked.

Steven realized. "Ah! It's Garnet's gloves. She thinks she's being attacked."

Before anyone could correct this mistake the monster started spitting acid all across the room, causing the cave to shake violently… again.

"I knew it was a mistake to bring that thing here!" Pearl cried.

Soon, stalactites started falling from the ceiling, Onyx pulled out her scythe and started chipping at them to destroy them before they hit the ground. Meanwhile, she could see that the other Crystal Gems were being merciless towards the Centipeedle while Steven tried to protect it. She wanted to help him, to try and calm the beast down or get the other gems to stop agitating it but she knew that a few well-placed stalagmites could cause the cave to collapse in ion them and so she stayed.

However, she saw one huge piece of ice breaking off from the ceiling and she saw it was going to hit Steven. She dashed forward, trying to intercept it but she was too far and in the end it was the Centipeedle who pushed Steven out of the way and saved his life at the cost of its own.

Onyx was almost stunned, this creature… this vessel of disjointed emotion and unstable energy was empathetic enough to save a child who it hasn't known for more than a few hours… maybe there were hope for these monsters after all.

Steven had gathered around the Centipeedle's gem and the other gems gathered around him. He looked incredibly sad and filled with remorse, but thankfully the other gems knew what to do.

"Steven... You did a good job trying to tame the Centipeetle. Your mother would be so proud." Garnet said.

He looked up at her with surprise. "She would?"

Garnet nodded. "The truth is, Rose Quartz had tried to use her powers to save these monsters too, but she was never able to heal them."

"Never? But if she couldn't do it..."

Onyx spoke up. "Then maybe you can. You have a very unique way of doing things Steven, perhaps you'll think of something your mother never could."

"Maybe when you have better control of your powers." Pearl said.

Steven nods; all the sadness that he felt a minute ago was filled with a newfound sense of hope and a drive to learn how to be a better him.

"Don't worry, i'll keep it safe."

Then, the gem was lifted out of his hand and placed inside a pink bubble.

"Whoa!" Amethyst said.

Pearl gasped. "Steven! You can bubble gems!"

Onyx smiled, she was glad that Steven had learned something new about himself.

After that Steven poked the bubble and sent it off to the temple. With the gem bubbled and the artifact secured, the group made their way out of the cave and back towards the warp pad.

And as they walked Onyx started replaying the events of today in her head and she began to wonder

"_Would things have been different… if I wasn't here?"_


	24. Tears To Shed

**No funny dialogue at the beginning of this one. College is very hard and stressful, but the next two chapters should be done faster since I've worked on them since before now. Here's to hopping, right? Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Today, the gems were relaxing at the house; they had done several missions over the past three days and so they decided that it was safe to rest for a little while. Pearl was tidying up around the house, Amethyst was hanging out with Steven, and Garnet &amp; Onyx were sitting on the couch. Garnet had given Onyx her newspaper to read.

"Remember when I asked to read your newspaper so I could understand human culture better?" Onyx asked.

Garnet nodded. "Yes?"

Onyx threw the newspaper on the table. "I hate it, half of it is gibberish to me and the other half is depressing stories of death and cynicism."

Garnet nodded. "It has been like this for a while now with humans, strife after strife, it does get a bit tedious."

Onyx had a look of confusion on her face. 'Then why do you continue to read such negative scrawling's?"

Garnet picked up the paper. "We save the planet constantly; we have a right to know what's going on in it." She turned to a certain page.

"I… suppose that's fair."

Onyx laid back further into the couch, she was ready to take a nap until she felt something… odd happen. From this distance she could feel the individual energies of all the gems and they felt like consistent waves interacting with her; however, in a split second Amethyst's energy had a spike in activity and had a certain sense of dissonance about it.

This concerned Onyx. "I have a question…"

"Yes?" Pearl and Garnet responded.

"What does it mean when a gem's energy starts fluctuating and diminishing?"

As soon as Onyx had asked her question Garnet and Pearl gave each other a quick glance before darting out of the house.

Onyx sighed. "Guess I have my answer."

She got up and quickly started following them, they ran down the cliff side and onto the beach. When Onyx had caught up she saw that everyone had their attention on Amethyst.

"Show me your gem!" Pearl demanded.

Her gem? What did Pearl want with her gem? Amethyst tried to cover herself up but Garnet quickly pulled her top to the side and revealed that her gem was cracked. Onyx knew right away that this wasn't good.

"Amethyst, how did you crack your gem?" She asked. "I got crushed by Sugalite and I walked away intact, what could have happened for you to crack?"

Amethyst points up. "I fell off that cliff and hit a rock."

Onyx looked at the height of the cliff she was talking about, and the rock in question had a fairly pointed edge. It made sense to her.

Pearl groaned. "Of course you did. Well first thing tomorrow I'm going to put up a fence there so something like this doesn't happen again."

Onyx nodded. "Good, that fixes our future problems… but what about right now?"

"This would be simple if only her body was damaged, but it's her gem this time." Garnet added.

"Well, how did you heal her before?" Steven asked.

"Before… we had your mother." Pearl said softly.

"My mom?"

Apparently, Rose Quartz had the ability to heal broken gems. The idea of this astounded Onyx because while their bodies were made of light based energy which was easy to replace the gem's on their bodies were… more complicated than that. She had no idea how the process works, even if she did have all her memory she may not even know much, but she had a feeling that if this was a Rose centered power then Steven could do it to.

But after a few seconds of struggling it seemed as though Steven wasn't going to cry. This made Onyx exasperated, she had cried before so it couldn't be that hard.

"Let's try to speed this up. What makes humans cry? Maybe we can try some of those." She suggested.

Garnet shook her head. "That would take too much time. We have no choice but go to Rose's fountain to heal her."

Amethyst scoffs at this thought. "Guys, come on I'm fi-fi-fi-fi-fi-fi" Then Amethyst's physical form began to glitch out until finally reforming with even odder looking eyes.

"Pu stahw syug yeh."

…Okay, that was slightly disconcerting. Clearly Amethyst needed this healing fountain right away, Onyx grabbed onto Amethyst's hand and started leading her towards the temple and the warp pad. But while they may have had a solution to the problem, Onyx was still worried.

"_I hope this doesn't get too much worse. I remember when my physical form was damaged and, while it wasn't pleasant experience, it took a while for things to get really bad."_

Onyx looked down at Amethyst, who seemed to be struggling to stay in the moment.

"_I just hope it isn't too bad for her."_

Once back to the temple, the group got on the warp pad and started traveling through the warp stream. Onyx had no idea where they were going through; she just hoped that a fountain could save Amethyst.

"So Rose had a fountain with healing powers?" She asked to no one in particular.

Pearl's face seemed to light up at the mention of it.

"Oh not just a fountain, she created a while garden so that she could take care of plants that she came across in her travels. It's filled with beautiful wild flowers, stretching vines, all brought together with an intricate design…"

As Pearl continued her rambling, the warp pad stopped and they arrived at their location. Onyx took one look around and the whole thing felt… dark; the area was dim, but not for lack of light. If she had to guess, the vines and plants that surrounded them were eating away at the life and light of this place and that did not make Onyx happy.

"At the center of the garden we'll find Rose's fountain, overflowing with her healing, lacrimal essence!"

Garnet took one quick look around and said what Onyx was thinking.

"I don't see it."

That sentence visibly disturbed Pearl and she started to slip into her "panic mode" and when Pearl starts to panic she becomes next to useless.

As the group stood their Amethyst tried to pull away from Onyx's grip.

"Ereh fo tuo teg stel syug no emoc."

Onyx pulled her right back.

"Stop it Amethyst, we're getting you fixed and that's final."

Pearl walked around the garden to examine its condition. Her body lightly shook and she started to sweat.

"Now, now! Let's keep it together! Our memories of Rose can't be tainted by some overgrown brambles!"

She chuckled to herself, nervously. "Look at them. They're a mess without her guidance. Directionless, pathetic, clinging things. It's going to be okay, Garnet."

Garnet shrugged her shoulders. "Sure."

"You really think so?"

While Pearl tried not to lose her mind over her sentimental memories, Steven stayed back with Amethyst and tried to summon more healing tears but couldn't do anything.

"Maybe… there's a path over here." Pearl pointed.

Onyx thought about it. "Maybe. Let's look over there and…"

Garnet shook her head. "No. Pearl and I will go look for the fountain. You stay here and keep an eye on Amethyst and Steven."

"What are you talking about? Steven's fine and Amethyst is right-"

Onyx looked back to show that she was holding Amethyst right here but when she looked behind her she saw Amethyst's arm had stretched out and she was over next to Steven. Realizing this she walked over to the duo and Garnet and Pearl set off to discover the healing fountain.

"Amethyst, how are you even doing this?" Onyx asked.

"Rehtegot flesym peek tnac tsuj i."

"And that gibberish you're speaking is getting pretty annoying as well."

Amethyst google eyes looked away despondently.

Onyx sighed in frustration. "Steven, can you please help me keep Amethyst contained?"

Steven strained his whole body. "Can't… trying… to make self… cry."

"It's not going to work Steven; you can't force yourself to cry. You need something to be able to make you cry."

Amethyst raised her arm up into the air excitedly, she made sounds to get their attention. She pointed at her eyes and slapped herself across the face.

Onyx got nothing out of this little display but Steven seemed to understand something about it.

"Hmm… pain makes one cry. Where is pain?"

Steven looked at the brambles that surrounded them, one of them had a thorn growing out of its roots. He went up to poke his finger, possibly getting the tears he needed in the process, but Amethyst and Onyx saw the brambles move towards him. Both moved to try and stop him but Amethyst was the one fast enough to jump in front of him and get him out of the way.

"Amethyst!" Pearl shouted. "Don't exert yourself, your gem will crack faster."

Onyx sighed. "Maybe we wouldn't have to worry about her gem cracking of we could find the fountain, Pearl."

Answering Onyx's lament, Garnet took a nearby rock and smashed it through the bramble which created a path near what appeared to be the center of the maze.

"Let's try this way."

Onyx tries to help Amethyst get up and head for the fountain, but the second she did Amethyst's body glitched out again and her hands, feet and even her head had switched places. She was getting worse by the minute… and it didn't help Onyx's confidence. She decided to pick up Amethyst and carry her along so that she wouldn't have too much of a problem.

As they walked Amethyst looked up at Onyx with questioning eyes, her mind was filled with questions but none she could vocalize… so she settled for the next best thing and held on tighter. Onyx felt the small gems grip tighten but she didn't want to address it, she was afraid she would lose her composure.

The gems found the center of the garden: Rose's fountain. It had a wonderful resemblance to the painting that hung in their home but…

"The fountain's dry." Onyx said.

"Wait." Steven said. "This is mom's place! Oh, oh, I'm getting emotional! I think it's happening!"

He leaned over Amethyst's gem, his eyes strained as he tried to cry… but once again nothing came out.

"Aw come on, I had it!"

Onyx sighed. "Don't worry Steven… I'm sure you'll get it." But she wasn't sure she believed it.

"In the meantime, Garnet and I are going to try and figure out what's wrong with the fountain. Stay here and look after Amethyst."

Garnet and Pearl began to walk away, but Steven chased them down.

"Wait, don't go! I'm really close this time I swear!"

But the gems didn't listen, they kept walking away, leaving the three of them alone. Onyx set down Amethyst near the fountain for a moment, then she went over to Steven.

"It'll be alright Steven." She said, as soothingly as she could.

"No it won't."

He stomped over to the statue, where Amethyst was trying to keep herself together. Onyx could feel the stress eating away at Steven… and herself; she remembered what happened last time one of them almost died and how she flew off the handle. She didn't want it to happen again, but there might be no stopping it.

"I don't understand anything! Why is everyone acting so strange? Why can't I… why can't I cry?"

Onyx thought the same thing

_"Yes, why couldn't he cry? If he could just make one stupid tear this would..."_

She took a deep breath, she had to push those negative thoughts out of her mind or they would poison the rest of her thoughts. As she tried to keep herself together she saw Steven do something… peculiar; he looked up at the statue of his mother and Onyx could feel something stirring inside of him.

"It's just... I mean, I don't know how to feel about you, but everyone else does. I wish I could have met you then this place would make me sad, and I could cry healing tears, like you."

He… he was having an internal conflict… just like her. That should have made Onyx understand, but it didn't… it only made her bitter.

_"All of that feeling in his heart, all of this desire for acceptance… and he still can't CRY? Well then…"_

"You want to cry Steven?" Onyx asked, her tone had become lower and more serious. "Then let me be serious with you for one moment: Amethyst is going to die."

Both Steven and Amethyst looked at her with shocked expressions.

"What?"

"Enif eb lli on." Amethyst sputtered.

"Garnet and Pearl can't find anything; we're sitting here waiting out the clock for Amethyst to die… and I feel completely useless!"

Onyx couldn't take it anymore, emotions were running too high and she couldn't contain everything that she was feeling. She began to tear up.

"If I had the healing tears this would be over in a minute. Because I don't want Amethyst to die, I can't imagine living in a world where any one of you is dead… because you're all so important to me."

Her speech was starting to make Steven and Amethyst teary eyed.

"And I'm sorry Amethyst, I'm sorry we couldn't heal you… I'm sorry we let you die. I just hope you don't hate us for it."

Amethyst started to sniffle.

"Uoy etah reven dluoc i uoy etah tnod i."

The scene had almost reached its peak, Steven was on the verge of tears; but of course, the universe loves to interfere with her plans and suddenly, fines shot up out of the ground and tried to grab the gems.

"I knew there was something off about you, overgrowth!" Onyx cried out.

As one vine tried to grab her arm, she made a quick crustal dagger with her left hand and cut right through it, she did the same for Steven and Amethyst as they tried to get to safety. She saw the vines growing larger and getting closer to them.

"Bring it on you dirty parasite!" She created a scythe. "I'll cut you all down so that perhaps I'll feel something!"

She waited for the vines to come and she was ready to turn this garden into a lifeless mess until suddenly, there was a rumbling in the ground. Cracks started to form where the vines had shot up and water began to burst forth from the seams.

Pretty soon the fountain was filled up, Onyx and the others got washed away with the tide and ended up submerged in water. When Onyx had gotten it out of her mouth she looked over and saw that Amethyst was completely better, her gem was fixed and she was smiling so Onyx couldn't help but smile either.

"We did it guys!" Steven said.

Onyx couldn't help herself, she leaned over and hugged Steven and Amethyst. She was glad that everything had turned out alright and she was glad that they were all back together again.

Soon enough, Pearl and Garnet walked back into the room.

"I see everything's back to normal then?"

Onyx nodded. "Fountain's flowing, Amethyst is fixed, nothing could be better."

"Yeah, my tears brought the fountain back to life and saved Amethyst!" Steven declared

But Onyx had a feeling this wasn't true, Garnet and Pearl's expression confirmed it.

"I'm pretty sure me and Garnet unplugging the clogged chamber brought the fountain back to life."

Steven wanted to believe that he had helped save Amethyst, that he was responsible at least in some small part, but Pearl crushed his hope in one sentence.

"Steven, I know you wanted to be helpful but… I don't think you have your mother's healing powers."

And just like that Onyx felt something snap inside Steven, it was small but it was there… and she could tell that he was hurt.

**The next day…**

Steven sat alone in his room, looking out the window with a distant glare as the rest of the gems worked on building a fence up near the lighthouse. As he sat and stared, Onyx walked up to him.

"Hey Steven."

"Hey." He responded with little effort.

Onyx stood beside him, she knew that this was a delicate matter and she wanted to make Steven feel better so she chose her words carefully.

"Look Steven, about yesterday… I mostly said those things because I was trying to help you cry. I don't blame you for anything that happened."

"Well I do."

Onyx sighed. "I do to. I felt just as useless, I was just as scared, but shouldn't we both be happy that it turned out well in the end?"

Steven just sighed. "Maybe… but it would have been better if I was magic like the gems."

Onyx didn't know how to respond to that so she just dropped the conversation entirely, it was clear that nothing she could say would make Steven feel better and she didn't feel like hurting him more by trying.

She was about to walk away and rejoin the rest of the gems outside when something nearby Steven's bed started to buzz. She had seen the device before, Steven explained that it was his phone.

"Hey Steven, your phone is making a noise, what does that mean?"

Instead of answering Onyx Steven reached over and picked up the phone for himself.

"It's a message… from Connie. She said she wants to hang out tomorrow, maybe have a picnic."

Onyx thought it over.

"I'd take her up on it. We probably won't have another mission for a while and it has been a while since you last saw each other. You are her friend, are you not?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah."

Steven pressed some buttons on his phone and then put it back.

**The next (next) day…**

Onyx was glad when Connie knocked on the door, if the perspective of a gem couldn't help Steven work out his problems then perhaps the perspective of a human could. Onyx opened the door and saw Connie standing there with a picnic basket in her hands.

"Ah Connie, good to see you again. It's been too long." She said sincerely.

"Hello Onyx ma'm, is Steven ready?" She asked.

Onyx nodded. "He should be." She turned her head back inside. "Steven! Connie is here."

"Coming…"

As Steven made his way to the front door, Onyx looked outside she tried to find their source of transportation.

"Where is that boy?"

She stepped outside for a moment and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Lion!"

Suddenly, Lion appeared at her side as if he were there that whole time, he nuzzled his head up against Onyx's side.

"Hey buddy"

She scratched at his massive mane, the lion was quite friendly around her and she was glad for it.

"Be nice for Steven and Connie won't you?"

He blew air out of his nose as if to say "yes". Soon Connie and Steven came out of the house and hopped on Lion's back.

"Have fun you two."

Connie waved. "Bye Onyx, we'll be back later."

Onyx waved the two goodbye and waited until they were far enough away… then she ran behind the house to turn into a bird and follow them. She didn't want to spy on them, she was just… insanely curious what might go on.

Thankfully they didn't travel very far, they decided to have their picnic near the lighthouse up on the cliff where the fence was just built the other day. They set the picnic down on the ground and Onyx perched herself up on top of the lighthouse where she could still hear everything that they were saying.

Connie talked about what's new with her, Steven… didn't much feel like sharing, and through some convincing from Connie he told her what happened with Amethyst at the fountain. Onyx felt Steven relive all those feelings again and it almost broke her heart… but then something amazing happened.

He was happy, Connie made him happy again and he rushed off in delight. As Connie was packing up the picnic Onyx landed next to her and turned back to her human form.

"Thank you Connie."

"AH!" Connie jumped, she didn't see Onyx approach her. "You scared me."

"Sorry… I've been told I do that."

"It's alright. What are you thanking me for though?"

"For making Steven feel better of course, he's been stewing over his feelings for almost two days and I didn't think that anything I could say would get him out of his funk. But then you came along and fix it in less than hour."

Connie waved off Onyx's compliments. "No, it wasn't me, he just figured it out for himself."

"And he couldn't have done that without you. You're a special person Connie, embrace it."

Connie looked down and it was clear that she liked what Onyx had said.

"I do have one question though: When you moved towards Steven during the conversation… what was that?"

Connie got wide eyes and her cheeks changed color. "You saw that?"

"Yes. What were you trying to do?"

"It… it was nothing." She packed up the rest of the picnic stuff in a hurry and got on Lion's back. "Would you mind giving me a lift back home?"

Onyx smiled. "No problem."

She knew Connie wasn't going to explain, but if she learned anything this past few days it's that deeper question can be answered, it just takes time.


	25. A Pale Reflection: Part 1

**Ha! I told you this would be done faster than the other one and I was right! The only downside is that I have large tests and projects that I should probably be doing so… yeah… but I'm really happy with how this chapter came out and I hope you enjoy it.**

Onyx rose from her bed on another fine morning…at least she assumed so; her body had a good idea of roughly what time it was, but she couldn't tell what was going on outside. She felt uneasy though, so something must have been off.

She walked to her door and opened up to reveal the house, Steven was standing in the middle of the room while Pearl was stacking things into a pile.

"What's going on here?" She asked.

Steven turned around to her. "Oh, hey Onyx, Pearl and I are making a school."

"School? You mean the group that humans go to in order to learn things?"

"That's exactly it." Pearl said

"I never really saw the point of it, you're smart Steven and you seemed to have learned everything that you need to know from the gems. Why one would choose to learn in a group is beyond me."

Pearl finished stacking everything. "That's all the items." She crossed her arms and stared at Steven. "So, how does this school start?"

Steven scratched his head in thought. "Umm…I don't know. This is all Connie told me. Why do I ever ask follow up questions?"

Steven lamented his position, it was dramatic and Onyx could humor in it though she assumed that was unintentional. "Who will teach Steven now?"

"Well I have some books in my room that I could show you, they talk about…"

But Onyx was quickly shot down by Bird Mom who stepped forward. "You wanted to be taught? Why didn't you say so before? I have just the thing for the job."

Pearl got into a…strange stance. She started making sounds and hand gestures that didn't make any sense to Onyx but soon enough Pearl summoned a light orb which transformed into a mirror.

"We found this gem powered mirror at the galaxy warp. It can capture any display it's witnessed in all of gem history. You'll be able to find out every important aspect of gem culture."

Steven gazed into the mirror. "I must be incredibly important to gem culture then."

Pearl dismissed his comment. "It's just you in there; it hasn't even been activated yet."

"I believe that was the point of Steven's joke."

Pearl cleared her throat and leaned into the mirror.

"Show us the galaxy warp." She commanded. But nothing happened, so she tried again. "Show us the galaxy warp" Again nothing. "Oh come on, I know you've seen it!"

Pearl grabbed it out of Steven's hands and examined it. "Well… it was in pretty bad shape when we found it. Maybe it's finally broken."

Onyx took the mirror from Pearl. "Maybe not. You said that it was gem powered right? Perhaps I can get a read on it."

Onyx used her gempathy powers to read the gem's energy signals. At first she could feel nothing but a small sliver of power, but then when she examined that sliver more carefully she could feel…everything. Massive amounts of fear and pain and despair compressed into a few milliseconds, and when she finished fully receiving it she fell to the floor and conked out.

As her world darkened only two words stuck out in her mind.

"_Free her…"_

She awoke a few minutes later, rubbing her head. She saw that Pearl was still in the room now stacking things into a more…geometric pile.

"Oh good, you're awake." Pearl said happily. "I was starting to get worried."

Onyx got up off the floor and dusted herself off. "If you were so concerned then why did you let me sleep?"

"I assumed you would fix whatever needed to be fixed by yourself. You're very capable like that."

Onyx rolled her eyes. "Well I suppose…wait-" she noticed that she didn't have the mirror with her anymore and Pearl didn't have it either. "Where's the mirror?" She asked.

"Oh Steven took it. He was fascinated by it and since it didn't work I saw no harm in letting him use it."

Onyx was a bit gobsmacked. "Pearl, there is something very wrong with that mirror."

"Well I know it's broken, but other than that-"

"No. I felt something, a…surge of power. Something is hidden inside that mirror and I have to go find it."

Onyx ran to the front door and headed out of the house and towards the beach; she needed to find Steven before something bad happened to him.

She dashed from building to building and eventually managed to find Steven, he seemed to be walking backwards while looking into the mirror. She jumped in front of him and surprised the young boy.

"Steven, you need to get rid of that mirror."

"What?" He asked disappointedly. "Why?"

"There's something…off about it, and I don't want you to suffer because of it."

She took the mirror from Steven's hands. She was being forceful, but she didn't mean it in a mean way; she was looking out for Steven.

Onyx looked into the mirror. "What are you?"

Suddenly, the glass on the mirror began to ripple and then it revealed her face. "**What are you?**"

Onyx was surprised; the mirror repeated what she just said. Pearl said it didn't work, and it didn't respond to her before, so why was it working now?

"You got the mirror working again?" Onyx asked.

Steven nodded. "Yeah, it just started repeating stuff for some reason."

The glass on the mirror rippled again, but this time it showed Steven screaming "**Nooooo!**" and then it faded back to their reflections.

"Oh yeah, that was when it first turned on." Steven recalled. "Since then it's been repeating things it sees, or if I ask it a question."

"It answers questions?" Onyx looked into the mirror. "Can you hear me?"

The glass rippled and the playback ensued. "**Can you hear me?**"

Onyx shook her head. "No, I asked if you can hear me."

The glass rippled but this time it did something different. "**I- can- hear- you…**"

Steven gasped; he walked up and looked at the mirror. "You learned a new trick! That's so cool."

Onyx stared at the mirror more; as it kept playing back more scenes she could start getting a better feel for its energy, but it was kind of hard to make out. She needed more time and more samples.

"Maybe I was too quick to judge." Onyx waved her hand. "Come on Steven, let's go do some more things."

He nodded excitedly. "Okay."

So Steven, Onyx, and the mirror went all around town doing things all day; they played games, they laughed at jokes, they ate food, and they even saw friends. Onyx had a lot of new data to work with and for the most part she could sense a strong energy in the mirror. It was far from broken, it was only dormant.

Many hours had passed and the sun was starting to set over Beach City, Steven and Onyx were sitting on the beach watching the sun set while Steven talked into the mirror.

"You're a pretty cool mirror." Steven said happily.

The mirror whirred to create a response. "**You're a pretty cool- Steven!**"

Onyx smiled at the boys antics. "Please, tell us how you really feel."

The mirror didn't get Onyx's sarcasm so it created a response to her statement. "**Steven!- and- Onyx- are- a new friend.**"

Steven and Onyx seemed surprised by this statement.

"Really?" Steven asked.

"**Yeaaaaah!**" The mirror responded.

"You're our friend too!"

"**Hahahahahahaha!**" The mirror played back some of Steven's laughter, but it played his voice over itself so the laughter sounded bigger and louder.

"I can't wait to show you to the gems."

"**Noooooooo!"** The mirror screamed.

"Don't be shy; I'm sure they'll love you."

"**Noooooo!"** The mirror screamed again, using the same trick she had done for the laughter to make it sound bigger.

Onyx could sense true fear in that gem, curious why the mirror was giving off this energy she put it in her hand and looked into it.

"Why? What are you so afraid of?" She asked.

The mirror gave this response. "**I am - a – gem.**"

Peculiar. "But… you're the mirror."

"**Gem- in- the mirror.**"

This left Onyx with more questions than answers, it was clearly afraid of the gems for a reason it couldn't tell them. In this case, it seemed best to go right to the source.

"We need to show this to the others." Onyx suggested.

Both Steven and Onyx ran back to the house, the mirror stayed quite so Onyx had no idea what it was thinking.

Onyx handed the mirror to Steven and decided to run ahead, with her superior speed she would get there faster and maybe get more answers.

"Guys, I have some questions about-"

Onyx paused for a second to see all of the gems in the same room; Garnet and Amethyst were sitting on the couch while Pearl was trying to stack up multiple containers.

"Hey Onyx." Amethyst greeted. She picked up a box of cereal. "Check this out."

She threw the box at Pearl's pile and before it could touch it Pearl ran it through with her spear.

"Amethyst, would you please stop trying to ruin the symmetrical flawlessness of my stack?"

"Hmm." Amethyst thought about it for a second. "Nah."

Onyx brushed off the statement. "Yeah yeah, that's great Amethyst." Onyx walked up to Pearl and put her hands on Pearl's shoulders to get her attention. "Pearl, I need you to answer some questions for me, okay."

Pearl nodded. "O…kay…"

"Where did you say you found this mirror again?"

"At the galaxy warp."

"The galaxy warp that is no longer functional and has been here for millenniums, correct?"

Pearl nodded. "Right…"

"How did you know what this mirror did if it doesn't work? Had you seen it before? Do you remember it from back during the war?"

Pearl shook her head. "I don't remember much about it, all I know is that it repeats things because-"

Suddenly Steven bursts through the door. "Guys! I have something to show you."

"What is it Steven?" Garnet asked.

"Check it out." He stuck out the mirror. "Say hey." He waited for a few moments, but it refused to speak. Onyx could sense a hesitation in its flow, fear was dominating it. "Little buddy?"

Steven turned around and looked at the mirror with affection. "Come on, you wanna come out don't you? You have so much to say, and funny noises to share from across the ages. Are we not beach summer fun buddies?"

After some waiting the mirror rippled and made a strange picture of Steven who was making fart sounds by blowing air into his arm. Onyx assumed it was supposed to be a happy gesture because she felt more positive energy coming off the mirror.

"Couldn't help yourself could you?" Steven asked.

"**Only- for- you- Steven! Hahahahahahaha.**"

Steven laughed along with the mirror but the rest of the gems were completely and utterly shocked.

"It's…talking to him?" Pearl wondered.

"Is that a bad thing?" Onyx asked.

"It shouldn't be able to do that; it should only be able to follow orders."

Amethyst clutched at Garnet's leg. "Garnet, do something."

Onyx put both her arms up to try and stop madness before it ensues. "Whoa whoa whoa guys! It's a talking mirror, is that really such a bad thing? I mean it's not hurting anyone."

But no one ever listens to reason and so Garnet stepped forward. "Steven…"

The minute Garnet got close to Steven the mirror reacted, its fear came back and it was becoming more desperate by the second. Onyx could feel that in her chest and she really sympathized with the poor mirror.

"You should give us back the mirror, it'll be safer where we can watch it."

"Yeah, let's bubble it." Amethyst suggested.

"**Nooooooo!**"

"It's a mirror Garnet, calm down." Onyx tried to speak up.

Steve looked really worried; he had his friend screaming on one side and his mentor towering over him even though she was kneeling down to practically Steven's height.

"Steven, don't make me have to take it from you."

"Garnet… back away." Onyx said with more force this time.

"It doesn't want to go with you! Can't you hear it screaming?" Steven asked.

"Steven, it's just a mirror, a tool. It can't want anything."

She moved closer and closer to Steven, whose panic rose to the point where Steven actually retaliated and slapped Garnet's hand away as she came for the mirror, which also knocked off her visor.

Onyx was…really shocked. She didn't think that Steven could be pushed this far so that he slapped one of the gems. It was surprising…but she could understand.

Garnet however was not as understanding, all three of her eyes looked at Steven with anger and in a second Steven realized what he had done.

"Aaah!" He ran out of the house. "I'm sorry!" He screamed

Garnet reached down and put her visor back on. "That little boy…is in a lot of trouble." She said darkly

Onyx didn't want them to catch up to Steven, she knew he was doing the right thing and the gems being there would only cause more aggravation. She hadn't acted before…but she was ready to now.

"He's not the only one."

Onyx pushed the gems to the side and then ran out the front door, and before they could catch up to her she raised her hand and summoned huge onyx crystals to block the door.

"Onyx!" They all yelled.

Onyx saw Steven running down the beach, he was trying really hard to stay away from the gems but Onyx could sense him hiding behind a large rock. She ran along the side of a cliff and then she flipped off of it and landed right next to Steven behind the boulder.

Steven shrieked in surprise. "Onyx! Don't you-"

Onyx put her hands up defensively. "It's okay Steven. I'm with you on this one."

He seemed surprised. "Really?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I even put up a crystal barricade to keep the gems off our backs, it should hold them for a few minutes."

Unfortunately that didn't hold true as Onyx could feel the gems energy signatures move out of the house.

"Or a few seconds… whatever."

Steven looked at the mirror with a worried expression. "What am I going to do? What's their problem with you?"

The mirror rippled. "**Away-from- home**."

"I want to help you but I don't know how!" Steven shrieked.

Then suddenly, something the mirror said earlier stuck out in Onyx's mind.

"_**Gem- in- the mirror.**__"_

Then Onyx looked at the back of the mirror and saw the gemstone embedded in it… and she had an answer.

"The gem in the mirror…" Onyx said breathlessly. She took the mirror from Steven and looked at it carefully.

"What are you doing?" Steven asked.

"The gem wants to be let free… so let's free it!"

She gripped at the stone and pulled at it as hard as she could, the gem was really stuck in there but Onyx wouldn't give up.

Steven noticed that as she pulled on the gem water was drawn from the ocean and began forming around them, it created an intricate web of lines and angels in a circle that looked like something out of a magical ritual.

"Um, Onyx…" Steven said nervously.

"This gem… is locked away…no longer!" Onyx cried as she ripped the gem out of its placement, causing the mirror part to shatter.

As soon as it was free the gem began to glow with powerful energy, it was so full that it eventually flew out of Onyx's hand and hovered above the shore. Soon it exploded with energy and created a new female body form, who fell to the ground once she was finished forming.

Onyx and Steven both ran to the new gems side to try and help her, when they reached her Onyx took a good look at her: Her whole body was blue, her hair was short and pointed with two bangs on the sides of her head, she wore a blue sundress that reached all the way down to her feet and had a tie on the back, her eyes were a reflective white, and finally her gem was on her back but it was…cracked?

Onyx was stunned at her image, she… couldn't find the words to describe what she was feeling.

The gem looked up at them with her emotionless eyes and muttered two small words. "Thank you."

She tried to get up, but she stumbled and fell back down, Onyx stepped forward and grabbed her hands as she came back down and led her upwards to steady her balance.

This gem was only an inch or two shorter than Onyx so they were practically at eye level as they stood toe to toe with each other. Onyx was so caught up in the moment she could barely think of anything to say.

"Hi." She said simply… and a little bit stupidly.

"Hi…" She said back, and then she started to smile. "You talked to me! You both talked to me and then you freed me! I'm so happy I just… thank you."

"No problem." Steven said.

The blue gem looked down at the boy. "You're… Steven and Onyx right?"

Steven nodded. "That's us."

"I'm Lapis, Lapis Lazuli."

"Lapis Lazuli?" Onyx wondered aloud. "What a beautiful name."

"What?" Lapis wondered.

Onyx realized she said that aloud and then she became nervous. "I-I mean, it's a very interesting name. You- you don't see a lot of Lapis'… around these parts… is what I'm saying."

Lapis smiled and the gems speech, though she didn't truly understand its meaning. "Tell me: Are you both crystal gems?"

"Yep." Steven answered.

"But… you set me free."

"Well… why wouldn't we?" He replied back.

"STEVEN!" Garnet yelled.

Their moment was broken up however as the rest of the crystal gems appeared before them on the beach with their weapons drawn, Garnet had malice in her heart but Pearl and Amethyst just seemed confused.

"Wait!" Steven cried out.

Unfortunately, it seemed Lapis was in no mood to talk.

"You… you three knew I was in there and you did nothing! Did you even wonder who I used to be?"

As Lapis talked she created a giant hand from the water behind her, it loomed menacingly over all the gems. Onyx knew that if she attacked only bad things would happen.

"Lapis… don't do this." Onyx begged.

But she did not listen; she brought the hand crashing down on the gems. It pinned Garnet to the beach and it knocked Pearl and Amethyst away with its sheer force.

"Steven, run!" Pearl screamed.

"I am Lapis Lazuli, and you can't keep me trapped here anymore!"

Steven ran up and looked at Lapis with confusion. "What are you doing?"

"They're not going to let us leave here."

Lapis raised her arm and the ocean behind her parted and created a pathway through the waves.

"Steven, Onyx, come with me."

"Where?" Steven asked.

"Home."

"But…but this is my home." Steven admitted

Lapis looked towards Onyx. "What about you Onyx?"

Onyx was conflicted, she believed in Lapis she really did, but was she willing to betray the crystal gems? Betray the people who had taken her in and looked after her? Gave her a purpose?

Could Lapis be another purpose?

Onyx didn't have time to answer her question; Garnet punched her way through the aqua fist and was back up on her feet.

"I-I" Onyx stuttered… she never did that.

Lapis' looked changed to anger. "How can you side with them? Do you have any idea what they've truly done?"

Onyx shook her head.

"When you find out the truth, you'll see them as I see them and then you'll know I feel." She turned around and started walking towards the ocean. "Goodbye."

Garnet charged at Lapis, trying to get her before she could get away but Lapis summoned a wave that crashed into everyone on the beach and sent them backwards. When they got back up the beach was empty, Lapis was gone.

Pearl wrapped her hands around Steven. "Steven, are you okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine."

They all looked out towards the ocean, where could Lapis have gone? And for that matter where was she going?

"So, that was another gem huh?" Steven asked

"Yes." Pearl answered.

This whole situation didn't feel right in Onyx's stomach: She didn't feel right, Steven didn't feel right, and Garnet definitely wasn't feeling right. So Onyx made a choice.

"I have to go after her."

The gems looked at her with shock. "What?"

"She's upset and confused, if I can get her to calm down maybe we can talk this out."

Garnet put a hand on her shoulder. "You're not going after her."

Onyx pulled away, this was something she was going to figure out on her own. "Try and stop me."

She ran toward the shore and jumped up above the ocean. She summoned her wings and flew over the ocean and searched the rolling waves for Lapis, her energy was weak but she still left a trail for her to follow.

"Lapis!" Onyx shouted.

She dove down into the sea and swam through until she saw a faint blue outline that looked like Lapis rushing away. She swam as quickly as she could to reach the gem and she put her hand on Lapis' shoulder.

"Lapis, wait a second…"

Lapis turned around and sent a wave of force towards Onyx, knocking her back. If she had the ability to control water, then she was most powerful here in the ocean.

"Get away from me! You just want to use me like they did."

"No no! I want to help you Lapis, I want to make it so you don't have to run away from these gems. We can all live together in peace."

Lapis floated there in the water silently, thinking about her options. As she stood their silently Onyx walked back up to her and put her hands on Lapis' shoulders.

"Please… let me help you."

Lapis looked into Onyx's eyes, as if she was looking into her soul, and for a brief moment… there was a connection between them, like they were one in the same.

But that flicker only did last a moment as Lapis came back to her senses and used the surrounding water to grab Onyx and keep her held back.

"If you want to help me… stop following me…."

She threw Onyx down towards the bottom of the ocean, Onyx slammed through some of the bedrock causing it to crack in half. She was now lying on the ocean's floor.

"Keep those Crystal Gems away from me…"

As Onyx tried to get up she felt two more strong waves pounding her to the ground, as if she were being hit by a monster.

"And just… go… AWAY!"

With Onyx's last bit of energy, she looked up and saw Lapis throw a massive chunk of rock at her, it was too big and she wasn't fast enough to get out of its way so she took the massive hit and everything started to go dark.

As Onyx drifted towards the darkness she uttered one last sentence.

"Lapis… I'm sorry…"


	26. A Pale Reflection: Part 2

**Well, I think the last chapter went over well. I got a lot of great reviews from you guys and you seem to be really invested in this story ark, so it only seems fitting that I give you a proper conclusion filled with all the emotion, action, and character development that you crave. Enjoy, and let the battle for the ocean commence!**

So many thoughts stirred through Onyx's mind as her body drifted, lifeless and limp in the darkness.

"_Who was Lapis Lazuli? Why does she distrust the crystal gems so? Why did they attack her…"_

Suddenly she felt something rush into her mouth and fill up her chest.

"_And why do I feel like I'm drowning?"_

Onyx's eyes opened and she was lying on her back, face to face with the morning sun glaring in her vision. As she tried to get up a wave washed over her and she inhaled more water; she coughed and tried to get it out of her system but with no success. Eventually she got on her hands and knees and put enough pressure on her stomach to push all the water out of her, it wasn't exactly… pleasant, but she didn't want any water sloshing around in her body.

As she coughed the last of it up she looked around to see where she was exactly. She saw that she had landed back on the beach and the temple wasn't more than a few yards away.

"_I…made it back to the shore? I thought Lapis knocked me into the bottom of the ocean."_ She asked herself.

Onyx didn't question her good fortune; she was just glad that she wasn't lost. She walked back to the temple, with a slight limp in her leg and aches in chest, from the blows she took last night. She opened the door to the temple and saw everyone else standing around talking, but when she walked into the room all eyes were on her.

"Well look who's back." Pearl said in a snarky tone.

Onyx rolled her eyes. "You almost sound unhappy about it."

"You and Steven were reckless last night, you disobeyed our orders and you let Lapis get away." Garnet said

"First of all, you were just as powerless to stop her." Onyx walked closer to her. "Secondly, I did what I thought was right. She wasn't a threat until the rest of you showed up and started attacking her."

Garnet turned to meet Onyx's gaze, the two gems stared at each other with intense and almost angry glares, neither one willing to move an inch on this issue.

"Regardless, you're both grounded."

Onyx gasped. "I… don't know what that means exactly. What are the implications of this 'grounding'?"

"It means that we have to stay at the house." Steven explained.

Onyx gasped sincerely this time, now that she had all the information.

"You can't force me to stay here at the temple, you need both Steven and I to help you on your missions."

Pearl crossed her arms. "No we don't. We've managed fine without you before and we'll do the same now. We're going to keep you at the temple in case you decide to have another one of your… fits."

Onyx knew exactly what Pearl meant by "fits".

"Oh so that's what we're calling them know. I act out slightly, learn more about who I am, and you decide to call them "fits". Very nice Pearl, that isn't at all demeaning or makes me feel bad about my actions."

Pearl was about to make a witty retort but the door to the temple shot open and Greg came through it.

"Uh, you guys better come check this out." He said nervously.

Onyx grunted. "Greg, I normally appreciate interactions with you, but we're in the middle of something."

"Trust me… you guys need to see this." He said, before heading back outside.

The gems were silently debating what to do, until finally they all went outside the temple together. They saw almost all of the towns citizens standing on the beach's shore, except it could barely be called a beach anymore… because all of the water was missing.

"It's gone." Onyx said obviously.

The gems walked amongst the crowd of humans, lamenting over their lost ocean, they wanted to know how and why this happened. To them it seemed impossible, but to the gems it was obvious.

"It was Lapis Lazuli." Garnet stated.

Onyx was shocked, not just that Lapis did this but also because of the amount of power she must have to be able to control this much water. Pearl didn't say much but looked at Onyx with a cocky expression because she thought she had been right all along. Steven and Amethyst looked at the two gems, afraid that they were going to start another argument and things would escalate even further.

In the end, Onyx just grunted and mega jumped up into the air and landed back at the temple, she went into her room and laid face down on the bed.

"_Why? Why can't I just do what I think is right and have it be right? Am I blind, or just a horrible judge of character?"_

Onyx was ready to give up at that point, she almost decided to slump in her bed and actually take this punishment lying down. But before she gave in she raised her head up, got off the bed, and went back on her feet.

"_No way am I going to let this happen, not a chance. I helped do this so I'm going to own it and make it right! Pearl always stands in my way, but not this time."_

Onyx started stretching her arms and legs, limbering up her body.

"Pearl expects me to throw a fit?" Onyx asked herself. She clenched her fist and smiles "Might as well make it a good one."

After Steven learned that his room could reshape itself, Onyx learned that the structures of the rooms were susceptible to change and mostly just constructs of the gems' needs and desires. She had started practicing with what these rooms were capable of and could make a decent sized training ring without too much struggle.

Onyx stomped her right root on the floor, her bed and bookshelf disappeared and the room was starting to be filled with crystal totems; each one was the size of a refrigerator and they started spinning around her slowly, getting closer and closer.

She lunged towards one, gave it a few quick punches in the front so that it started to crack, then she spun around and kicked the totem which launched a huge chunk of crystal into another totem which shattered it on contact.

Onyx smiled at her handiwork.

"I only have a little while to get ready, better make the most of it."

**45 minutes later…**

Onyx finished her training, all of her aches and pains were gone and she felt determined and energized. She knew what had to be done and she was willing to do it.

She walked out of the room and saw that, besides Greg and the other gems, Connie and Lion had shown up as well. She supposed that Connie heard about the ocean's disappearance and came over quickly, realizing that gems were probably looking into it and wanted to help. She was a considerate soul.

Onyx smiled. "Glad to see everyone's here."

Steven was glad to see her to. "Onyx! How are you doing?"

Onyx smiled and crossed her arms. "I feel good Steven, better than I did yesterday. Now it's about time that I put this good feeling to use."

Pearl stepped forward. "Oh no you don't, Steven is ungrounded but you still need to stay here until the problem you helped cause is dealt with."

"Actually… no I don't."

Steven and Connie were shocked by Onyx's dismissal of the gem's words. It made sense, they were still children and used to following authority.

"I helped set Lapis free so I'm going to take care of this problem by myself. I'll find Lapis, make her return the ocean, and then… we'll see."

"We're planning on doing the same." Garnet said. "We might get to her first."

"Maybe." Onyx sprouted her crystal wings. "But I can fly faster than any of you can travel, and I can sense the energies of other gems. I have the advantage."

Onyx walked to the front door, she opened it and almost stepped out before turning back to see everyone else's reactions. No one was yelling at her, no one was telling her to stop but she could tell what they were all feeling: Pearl resented her with a passion and didn't want to see her leave but knew that trying to stop her would only cause problems, Garnet wasn't happy but her attitude was more passive and she was willing to let Onyx try, Amethyst… Amethyst really didn't want her to go, Onyx couldn't tell what this feeling was but there was a strong nervousness in Amethyst's being.

Despite this negativity, she saw Amethyst give her thumbs up and she returned it before stepping out on the porch and taking off into the sky.

She heads away from the temple as fast as she could, heading further and further into the area where the ocean used to reside. She figured that if she headed straight in one direction she was bound to pick up on some sort of energy signature.

As she flew on and on for what seemed like hours a thought occurred to Onyx: Why was she doing this? It sounded like a dumb question but she realized that she usually never got this heated with Pearl and she doesn't usually go against what the other gems say. What was it about this situation that made her act so different? Could it be Lapis?

What was it about Lapis that made Onyx feel different? What was it that drew her to the water gem so strongly? She hadn't the foggiest idea.

Onyx was in thought for a while until she felt a huge spike of energy nearby and… well she didn't need her powers to see the giant tower of water shooting up from the ground and she assumed that was where Lapis was.

She landed about three feet away from the tower and slowly made her way to it. The tower itself was made of incredibly smooth water, and yet it was rushing upwards like it was trying to get somewhere. Onyx had no idea what Lapis was trying to do, but she had to find some way to stop it.

Before she could come up with a plan, the water in the tower began to move and take on the form of Lapis' head.

"_She must have sensed me coming."_ Onyx thought.

"You shouldn't be here!" Lapis said, in a deep and booming voice.

"I need to be here Lapis! I want to help you!" Onyx cried out.

"You've done this before and I attacked you, what makes you think I will accept your help now?"

"Because don't you think that maybe if I let you out of the mirror, then chased you into the ocean to try and help you, even after you knocked me around and threw me through a rock, that I'm genuine about wanting to help you?"

Lapis looked at her with those blank vacant eyes of hers wide open, maybe she was right… maybe she could be trusted… but then she closed them tightly and shook her head.

"No… no, you can't be trusted! You're a Crystal Gem!"

"But I wasn't always one! I chose to be with them because they found me."

Lapis was silent for a moment.

"You don't owe them anything. You should just be thankful they didn't do anything to you."

Onyx sighed. "Lapis, I don't know why you were trapped in that mirror but… that was probably a long time ago. I don't even think these gems were the one that did it, they don't even remember you."

"But they saw me in that mirror, they didn't help me! They saw my gem and they did nothing!"

Lapis was right. The Crystal Gems… didn't help gems, they stopped them from doing anything else; it's why all the monsters they beat were held in stasis for the rest of their lives, and it's probably why Lapis was stuck in her mirror for so long.

"I've won't ask you again…"

Suddenly, water began to break away from the giant pillar and took on a form of its own. It looked like it was filling up a mold, a mold shaped like Onyx; Lapis managed to create a clone of Onyx made entirely out of water. Though it didn't have any facial features and was fairly blank it looked at Onyx with a menacing glare.

"Leave…me…alone."

Onyx didn't know what it would take to get Lapis to agree with her, but if Lapis felt threatened then maybe it was her chance to live that Onyx needed to appeal to.

Onyx took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. "Alright Lapis, this is all I'm going to say: When the Crystal Gems find you or if you decide to attack them, things could end badly for you. I don't want that for you, but there might just be another way out of this: Stop fighting them, come down here and stand by my side. Then maybe, just maybe, we can all talk this out and things can be peaceful."

Lapis struggled with this plea, she wanted to believe… she was still so tired after coming out of the mirror. She needed a place to be herself and maybe this could be it, even if it wasn't home…

But her dreams were broken when she felt more presences approaching her, the other Crystal Gems had found her… and she had a good idea how.

"You led them right to me."

It was less of a question and more of an accusation. Onyx realized what Lapis meant was saying and she tried to defend herself.

"No, Lapis, I didn't…

"I thought you were different… and you betrayed me to!"

Lapis' water clone rushed after Onyx, it slammed its water body into hers and it actually packed more force than she was expecting. It knocked her back quite a few feet and she landed in front of Greg's van where all the gems were getting out of.

"Onyx!" Steven cried out.

The more caring members of the group came over to her as she got up off the ground.

"What happened?" Connie asked.

Onyx's water duplicate jumped down to greet them, it stood in front of the group menacingly.

"That happened." Onyx responded.

The water clone came at her again this time, but Onyx managed to dodge the attack this time.

"It seems Lapis can make water puppets to do her bidding."

The water clone tried to punch Onyx but she blocked it with her arms, then she grabbed the clone's arms and spun it around and slammed it into the ground causing it to splatter like a puddle. It tried to reform itself but Onyx smashed the bigger parts of it with her boots to deter it from doing so.

Onyx sighed and looked towards the group. "You have impeccable timing, I had almost talked her down and gotten her to come along peacefully then you showed up and erased all my hard work."

"Right, because clearly you had this whole situation under control." Pearl quipped.

Onyx clenched her fists.

"Pearl…if you don't stop, I promise you Lapis will be the second biggest problem you have to deal with today."

"We did tell you that we were going to find her." Garnet said.

"Yes, you did, and now you can go away so that I can finish fixing this!"

"You aren't going anywhere." Lapis boomed.

They all looked up to the pillar of water and saw four more shapes walk forward, each one was a water clone of a gem and they all had the same dead expressions and smooth features of the previous one.

"If you won't stop pursing me then you leave me no choice but to fight you."

Amethyst pulled out her whip. "That suits me just fine."

Garnet and Pearl pulled out their weapons as well, and their aquatic counterparts did the same.

"Greg, get back. I'm afraid this is going to get messy." Onyx warned.

"Works for me." Greg said as he ran for cover.

The two groups of gems were at a standstill, everything seemed calm and still until they pounced on each other. Each gem going for their water clone and vice versa; it wasn't long until a heated battle began and Onyx felt caught in the middle of it with no clear path to take.

Help her friends who have done wrong? Or help the gem who probably doesn't care about her anymore?

As the battle raged on Onyx saw Garnet trying to trade blows with her water clone but neither one gaining the advantage. She shut her eyes tight, gritted her teeth and made a choice.

"_Curse it all…"_

She summoned a scythe, she made her way through the battlefield and as the copy of Garnet punched the original in the face, stunning Garnet fort a brief moment… Onyx came down from above and sliced the clone down the middle, causing its form to destabilize.

Garnet took in a few labored breaths, her battle with the clone had tired her.

"Is this what you wanted?" Onyx asked Garnet. "Is all of this really better than taking a minute to stop and try to talk to Lapis instead.

"No…"

Garnet pulled back her arm, preparing a punch; Onyx thought it was meant for her but Garnet moved her punch a few inches to the side and hit a reformed water Garnet in the face, causing it to move back.

"But it's the only way things could have gone."

"Really Garnet? Is that a fact?" Water Garnet tried to punch them but Onyx used her scythe to block her punch and swiped at her feet to knock her off balance. "Let me ask you something, are you saying that because she attacked us or because you have an actual reason for hating her?"

"She's a threat to this planet and everyone on it."

Garnet reengaged her fight with the water clone, Onyx got up behind it to stab it and try and to end the fight quicker but the clone was fast enough to block them both.

"Why? Because we backed her up into a corner? Anyone will fight when their life is threatened, it's an instinct that we feel inside."

Garnet and the water clone struggled for dominance, meanwhile Onyx made a crystal blade and stuck it in the water clone's back to damage it but the water clone absorbed the blow and tied to take in Onyx's whole arm.

"You feel it, I feel it. I might have even have done the same if I were in Lapis' shoes."

That surprised Garnet. "What?"

As the water Garnet tried to pull Onyx in more and more, she created crystals around her trapped hand to try and break apart the clone's composition. In a final act, she put her other arm inside the clone's body and pulled her arms apart until it created enough force to separate the clone's body into several larger globs of water that shot in different directions and landed on the ground.

With the threat gone Onyx asked her question again.

"Look at me Garnet, look at me and tell me that under different circumstances you wouldn't have tried to just lock me up the second that you saw me come out of that comet."

Garnet struggled for an answer. "I… I don't know."

"Well… I have a pretty good idea of what that answer might be."

Onyx relaxed for that moment, content with her answer, until she saw something else that demanded her attention; Lion had just been smacked into Greg's van. The gems could defend themselves with weapons but Lion had no such tactic.

Onyx gripped her scythe. "Come on, the battle still rages on."

She dashed off to try and help Lion back up, but before she could get there she felt something wrap around her leg; she saw that Water Amethyst had wrapped a whip around her leg and then threw her into a large rock which cracked it down the middle.

It didn't hurt as much as she would have thought, but it threw her off. As she tried to get up and back into the fight she saw Water Amethyst throw another rock at her but this time she was fast enough to get out of the way.

"Hey Onyx!"

She heard Amethyst yelling at her from a way's away. She looked over and saw that she was tied up by one of the water clone's whips, but after a bit of struggling she managed to break her bonds.

"Toss the rock!"

Toss the rock? What did she…

Onyx saw Water Amethyst throw another huge rock at her and in that second she knew what Amethyst meant. The game that they played…

She smiled. "Toss the rock!"

Onyx jumped into the air to intercept this rock, she wrapped her arms around it and while the impact pushes her back she managed to get enough momentum to throw it in Amethyst's direction. Amethyst jumped up to meet it; while she did that, Onyx dove back to the ground to fight Water Amethyst and keep her distracted.

The clone was very single minded, once Onyx stepped into its field of view it lashed out at her with a whip. It fought just like Amethyst, fast but sloppy, and Onyx dodged the whip strikes while also keeping the attention on her. Soon enough a shadow appeared underneath the two and with one grab Onyx slammed Water Amethyst into the ground and moved out of the way, so before Water Amethyst could get up off the ground she was crushed underneath a giant rock.

Amethyst came down and landed right next to Onyx, they high fived at their great work but Onyx's revelry ended as she felt something bad: Steven was panicking. She looked for the source of his panic and saw that his clone was trying to drown both him and Connie.

Seeing that filled Onyx with a white-hot rage, she dashed over to try and get them free but Greg beat her to the punch by running over the clone with his can which released them; so, she did the next thing by checking on their conditions.

"Are you kids okay?" She asked.

Steven coughed up as much water as he could and shook his head. "I-I'm fine."

Onyx turned towards where that water clone once stood and she was beyond angry. How could Lapis do this? Steven was the one who let her go, the only friend she had in thousands of years and she tried to kill him… maybe she was wrong about Lapis this entire time.

As she pondered this moral dilemma the water Steven threw the van off its body and up into the air, it came down in a loud crash and threw Greg along with it. While the kids checked to make sure Greg was okay, Onyx looked at the thing and glowered.

"What is wrong with you Lapis?" She practically screamed. "What malice do you have that you can't let anything go? That you would kill the only friends you have?"

Water Steven raised his hand and created a large water ball.

"If you want to fight, then fight me! Come on!"

Onyx summoned crystals around her hands to make claws to rip this thing to shreds with, but before she could move Steven grabbed onto her arm.

"No! No more fighting, please, I don't want to fight anymore."

The clone didn't listen; it threw the water ball in defiance and tried to hit Steven again.

"I said, I don't want to fight anymore!"

Steven stepped in front of Onyx and raised an arm to defend her, and from his arm came his weapon: a pink shield.

Onyx had never seen Steven summon his shield before, she was impressed that he could do it and that he did it to come to her aid. He always seemed to struggle with his magical powers, so the fact that he did it now when things were at their worst spoke volumes about his character.

After the shield was summoned and the water ball was deflected, it created a sound that resonated in the air and dissolved any of the water clones that were still left standing. Whether that was a sign that Lapis wanted to stop fighting they didn't know, but they suspected that now was their chance.

Onyx dismantled her crystal gloves and walked toward the water pillar, Steven followed close behind her. No one else said a word or tried to stop them, they just looked on and hoped that they would finally be the ones to end this struggle.

At the foot of the pillar Steven and Onyx looked up.

"Lapis, we're coming up… so don't try to drown us." Steven said.

Onyx held out a hand. "Hold your breath Steven."

Steven nodded, he took her hand and then took a breath. Then they stepped together into the water pillar and shot upwards higher and higher into the sky until finally they came close to the top.

When they reached the top, Steven stepped out of the stream and stood on a smooth water platform without much problem, but when Onyx tried to step out she felt herself being stopped by some invisible force. Then it lifted her out of the pillar and held her above Steven's head, she was surrounded by a sphere of water that gripped her tightly to the point that it almost crushed her.

She looked in front of her and saw that it was Lapis who had her in this water death grip while Steven looked on in shock and horror.

"Lapis…" She strained to say.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't crush you." Lapis threatened.

"No, don't" Steven begged.

Onyx struggled to find a reason that she hadn't used yet, one that would appeal to Lapis… she could only think of one.

"Because… if you were going to kill me you could have done it last night…"

Lapis seemed surprised by her answer.

"You threw me around, you slammed me into a rock, but you didn't try to kill me because you didn't want to. You don't want to kill any of us, you just want to be left alone… you even brought me back to the temple, didn't you?"

Lapis was silent for a moment, before un-bubbling Onyx and letting her back down onto the ground. Onyx grabbed her chest to try and relive the pressure that had caused her pain.

"Now how about instead of talking about what we're doing, let's ask what you're doing."

Steven agreed. "Yeah, what are you doing? This thing, the ocean, this is crazy! Can't we work this out? We gems should be friends."

Lapis gripped her fists in frustration. "Don't you know anything, Steven? Your friends, they don't really care about other Gems. All they care about is the Earth. But I never believed in this place..."

Lapis fell to her knees and sighed. "I just want to go home."

Onyx and Steven moved closer to try and comfort her, Onyx sat to the right of her while Steven went to the right.

"Listen Lapis, I know how you feel…"

Lapis scoffed. "No you don't."

Onyx looked at her defiantly. "Oh really? Tell me if this sounds familiar: you're a gem, you wake up after being asleep for who knows how many thousands of years, you're not quite sure where you are or what you're supposed to do but you're met with hostility. You're scared, you want to lash out…"

As Onyx told her story Lapis looks at her.

"…and you do, because you don't have a purpose and you don't know who took it away and you just want to be mad. That's me Lapis, that's everything that I've gone through; the only difference between us is that I don't remember anything to go back to, so I found a new home and felt happy living here."

She put her hand on Lapis' hand.

"The Earth is my home now…"

"Mine to." Steven said. "And we want it back just as much as you want yours. So please: can we have our ocean back?"

"I'm only using the ocean because my gem is cracked. If I just stretch it far enough..." Lapis sighs. Her angry façade disappeared and she realized that what she was doing only hurt people. "This is never going to work."

Onyx felt sad for the gem, she really did. Sure, she was mad at her for trying to attack the rest of the gems but given her own history she shouldn't be one to judge. Perhaps if she had something to go back to then maybe she would be just as intense as Lapis was, but right now she felt like their journeys were similar and that connected them on an emotional level.

The moment was broken as Steven made a statement that would solve their problems.

"I can fix your gem! I have healing powers!"

Onyx can't believe she didn't think of it sooner.

"You have healing powers?" Lapis asked.

"I know, right?"

From there it was a simple matter of Steven licking his hand and dragging it across Lapis' broken gem, within seconds the gem glowed brightly and it was fully reformed. Lapis sprouted a pair of water wings from her gem and turned to the both of them, she opened her eyes to reveal that she had two big blue orbs for iris'.

"Thank you Steven." She said gleefully.

"No prob bob."

"…It's Lapis."

Clearly Lapis didn't get Earth humor. "Oh… right."

"Well… goodbye."

Onyx didn't have a chance to say goodbye back as Lapis instantly flew away and out into the deep reaches of space. She wanted to ask if she would see Lapis again, she wanted to ask her to have a safe journey, and… say that even though they had only known each other for two days it was a wonderful experience. But she said none of this, and was only left with her thoughts.

Soon after Lapis left the whole water tower that they were standing on began to shake and rumble with great force.

"Umm Steven, if Lapis is gone… what's holding up this water tower?" Onyx asked.

"Nothing!" He replied in a panic.

"Ah."

The tower crumbled underneath their very feet, breaking up into blocks of water and falling back down towards the earth far below them. Steven flailed his body as he was at the mercy of the earth's gravity but Onyx summoned her wings and dived after him. She caught up with him quickly and grabbed him, keeping them both safe.

Suddenly, Lion and Connie appeared out of a random portal, they were hopping from water block to water block and using them as platforms. When they got close Connie extended her arm.

"Grab on!" She screamed.

Onyx grabbed her arm and Connie pulled them both onto Lion's back.

"Hold on!"

Lion fell straight down before roaring and creating a portal that led them back down to the base of the tower and with the rest of the gems.

"We need to get out of here now. The tower-"

Before they could even finish that thought water began to rush over the group and carry them all away. Onyx closed her eyes for fear that they would be stuck at the bottom of the ocean and waited for the water to overwhelm her… but nothing happened.

When she reopened her eyes, she saw that they were all completely dry and they were floating on top of Greg's van. Steven was fast enough to create a bubble around then that kept all of them dry and stopped the water from overtaking them. Now they were just riding the waves back to the shore and soon they made it back to Beach City.

With the ocean back and the gems safely on the shore, the crowd of people which one disparaged the loss of their ocean was now overjoyed to have it back and people to thank for it. Onyx was glad that they were getting this well-deserved recognition and that everything had worked out in the end.

"So, I assume Lapis made it off planet?" Garnet asked.

Onyx nodded yes.

"What does that mean for us?" Pearl asked.

"It means that we did the right thing." Onyx responded. "If she hates us that much then let her leave, she won't do us any more harm."

"That remains to be seen." Garnet said.

And so, one of the most turbulent adventures the gems had up to this point came to an end. The world was back to normal, justice had been served… and Onyx had a lot on her mind for the coming days.


	27. Blow up, Fly Up, and Come Around

**Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you enjoy spending time with your loved ones, I will be spending it as I usually do: Curled up in a corner, begging someone to love me, and eating ice-cream.**

**I realize that I have been gone for three months which is inexcusable but I am a lazy person who really likes sleeping and wasting time playing video games so… yeah. Here's the next mega chapter, and I hope you enjoy it.**

The next few days were… tense for the Crystal Gems. The threat of Lapis was taken care of, though its consequences if any were still unknown and Onyx's behavior still didn't sit well with the rest of the gems, so they were keeping their distance from each other until things had cooled down.

But there are still some situations where they needed to work together as a group, like when an explosion threatened to kill them all.

* * *

Greg was living with the gems while his leg was healing, the gems barely noticed his presence as they went about their daily lives but for those who liked to spend time with him like Steven and Amethyst they found him quite fun.

One day they all had to go on a mission to The Geode, which meant Greg would have to be left alone for the first time in a while. He said that it didn't bother him, but Steven saw that it was just the contrary.

"Go on, I'll be fine." Greg said.

Steven looked at his dad. "We can't just… leave him alone."

"Then don't." Onyx replied. "You four go take care of the geode, I'll stay here and look after Greg."

"No, we all need to go. Greg will remain here by himself."

When she said that Greg looked at them with huge puppy dog eyes that began to tear up. Onyx didn't like leaving him alone and Pearl just didn't like the look.

"Now, Greg, there's no need to be so pathetic. If anything happens to you, you can call us with this."

After a few seconds, Pearl presented something from her gemstone that she called a warp whistle, which would get the war pad to make a high pitch sound and call the gems back to him if he needed something.

With Greg all set, they teleported to The Geode, it was a huge crater in the middle of nowhere and at its center was a black half sphere with a crack that seemed to radiate pure energy.

"Wow… was there an explosion or something?" Steven asked

"Almost." Garnet replied.

"What you're looking at is a synthetic storm that was contained in-"

Before Pearl could fully explain, there was a whistling sound in the air.

"Is that what the warp whistle sounds like?" Onyx asked.

"Dad needs something, I'll be right back." Steven says.

When Steven left, Onyx tried to connect the dots as to what happened here.

"A synthetic storm? As in… something created by another gem?"

Garnet nodded.

"A gem could make something this powerful? It feels like it could wipe us all out in an instant."

"Well-"

Pearl wanted to explain what this was but then Steven came back through the warp pad and interrupted her… again.

"Sorry. It was important.

"As I was saying, what you're looking at is-"

Again, they heard the warp whistle, Pearl was interrupted and Steven rushed off. Onyx held in a laugh because at this point it was almost comical.

"So…" she asked. "How powerful is this thing?"

"If it gets out, it'll expand and vaporize anything within a half mile radius." Garnet said.

That really put the danger they were in to perspective.

Then, Steven came back again from his home. "It was important."

"Okay, so if the Geode breaks, then the storm will be unleashed and our bodies will be vaporized." Pearl said in summary.

"Then… we'd be dead." Steven replied.

"That's where you come in. Try to heal it." Garnet said.

"I… I don't know if I can." Steven worried.

"Won't hurt to try."

And Steven tried, he licked his hand and put it on the geode… but nothing happened. Onyx was disappointed, but not surprised; Steven had only used his healing powers twice so she didn't expect him to master it quickly, plus both of those times were used on people, not objects.

"Sorry Steven, guess we'll need to think of a different solution." Onyx said.

"But… but I thought I finally had it!"

Onyx sighed. "I know. I suppose this is just another thing that stops us from doing our work."

"We're figure something out." Garnet comforted.

With nothing else to do they all went back to the temple, Greg seemed happy to have his son back but Steven was a little less than happy.

"Let's go see if we can think of another way to seal it up." Garnet asked. "We'll be in the temple."

Amethyst patted Steven on the head. "Don't worry man, you'll get control of your powers soon."

Onyx was glad that Amethyst was trying to make him feel better, she was always doing her best to get everyone else to relax and she really appreciated it.

"Thanks Amethyst."

Steven was about to go out to The Big Donut before Amethyst tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yo, get me a croissant while you're out." She asked.

Onyx was curious. "What's a croissant?"

"It a piece of buttery flaky bread, it's like a pastry." Steven explained.

"Ooh, that sounds tasty. I want one to if you don't mind."

Steven nodded. "Sure thing."

When Steven left to go the store, Amethyst and Onyx followed the other gems back into the temple to discuss what to do.

"I'm guessing my crystals won't be strong enough to stop them." Onyx mused.

Pearl shook her head. "The geode around that storm was thick enough to stop an explosive power unlike any we've encountered."

"But there wasn't even anybody near that geode. What's the worst that could happen if we let it go off?" Amethyst asked.

"It's not just about people not getting hurt." Garnet said. "We don't know what that storm could do to the Earth, and if it draws human attention they could come looking for things they're not prepared to handle."

Pearl thought more. "Okay so we can't think of any way to contain it… is there an alternative?"

"…Maybe we could drain it?" Onyx asked. "Use that energy to power something else?"

Garnet shook her head. "It's too much power. Not only would it overload whatever we put that power into, I don't think it could be safely transferred."

"So, we can't stop it and we can't get rid of it?" Amethyst groaned. "Guess we're just stuck then."

Imagine the gem's surprise when not even an hour later they find out that Greg had sealed the geode shut with a human invention. Something so powerful stopped by something so simple.

As a reward for his help, and because they felt responsible, the gems had repaired Greg's van to peak condition and he moved out of the house. He also explained that his leg has been fully healed for some time now and he just wanted to spend some more time with Steven. While Onyx was a bit unhappy to hear that he lied, which added to Steven's doubt, she understood his position.

* * *

Granted that problem solved itself out and they worked together to solve it, it became worse when a problem divided them.

* * *

The gems were doing something different today, instead of looking for a monster or searching for some ancient gem artifact, they were visiting a site that was clearly abandoned a long time ago. The gems called it the Galaxy Warp and Onyx remembered hearing about it earlier.

"So, this is how the gems got off planet?" She asked as she looked around at the cracked platforms.

"Yes." Pearl responded. "It was much faster than using traditional spaceships and could take you to any gem controlled planet in the galaxy."

"But you said they were all broken?" Onyx asked, remembering what they told her.

Pearl nodded solemnly. "Mhmh."

The gems examined all the pads and made sure that they were all inactive. Onyx suspected that this was to stop unexpected visitors from getting to Earth, and given the serious air of this mission and the gems themselves she wondered who had come here in the first place.

"I wish I could remember what things were like off this planet." She mused.

"It was nice. So many different planets and people… such beautiful sights…"

Pearl looked like she wanted to elaborate on her feelings but she stopped short.

"But… we're here on Earth now and that's enough."

Onyx knew it wasn't enough for Pearl, in that moment she was filled with longing for the past but Onyx knew better to call her out on it.

Later they returned to the temple and went off to do their own things. Most of the other gems went off to their rooms but Steven left to hang out with his dad and Onyx stayed in the living room; she leaned down and flipped herself up so she was doing a handstand in the middle of the room.

She closed her eyes and focused, keeping her body still and letting her mind wander to different places. She envisioned the depths of space as she had seen it from the earth and from pictures in her books, darkened skies with hundreds of thousands of stars and billions of planets spread across fathomless distances. As she imagined her brain focuses on a single planet, she didn't know its name but it was big and from the view of space it seemed yellow, almost brown, she zoomed in closer… closer…

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the door to the temple open. She opened her eyes to see who had come through and the first thing she noticed was that it was nighttime outside, how long had she been just hanging here?

She rolled forward and got back on her feet, then when she turned around she saw Garnet standing there.

"Hi Garnet, what's going on?" She asked.

"Steven and Pearl aren't back yet."

"They went somewhere?" She asked curiously.

"Steven mentioned taking her to a barn outside of town, up a hill and to the east."

She could feel like Garnet was giving her instructions. "Do you want me to go look for them?"

Garnet nodded. "They didn't check in or call, I'm worried."

"I'll go look for them then." She heads for the door. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

She opened the front door, stepped onto the balcony railing and jumped off before summoning her crystalline wings and taking flight. She headed in the direction that Garnet told her and as she flew farther and farther away she could feel Steven and Pearl's energy grow ever so slightly.

When she was past Beach City and over the horizon she could see miles and miles of hills and trees and greenery, it was almost completely different from the city she had come to know. She could see the barn getting closer and closer, but she could also feel something in the air… a rumbling.

The rumbling grew and grew until finally it exploded in the form of a ship bursting out of the barn and flying up into the air away from it.

Onyx was confused about the situation, she looked down and saw Greg's van near the barn and she landed near him.

"Greg, what's going on?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." He said.

He went into the van and pulled out some sort of black box communication device.

"Hey, can you hear me?! Where do you two think you're going?!" He screamed.

"_Hey dad, guess where I am?"_

That was Steven's voice, was he… was he in that ship? And if he was does that mean Pearl was with him?

"I know where you are! It's where you're going that concerns me!"

"_Don't worry dad, Pearl says this is just a quick test flight."_

That answers that question. Pearl was taking Steven in a rocket…

"…_She's taking Steven from us!"_ Onyx thought, enraged.

"_This will be perfectly fine."_ Pearl assured. _"Just a pop over to the nearest star system. I'll give him back in fifty years."_

…FIFTY YEARS! Onyx didn't care that gems live for hundreds of years, she had only been here for a few months and it felt like a lifetime (though again, it could have something to do with her blank memory) and she didn't want either one of them to be gone that long.

"What? I'll be dead in fifty years." Greg exclaimed.

Onyx took the walkie talkie from Greg, seething with anger.

"Pearl! You better bring that ship back right now or I promise you…"

She didn't hear anything on the other hand, just some buzzing sounds.

"Hello? Hello?" She threw the walkie talkie back into the van. "Cruses. She isn't responding to me."

"What're we going to do?" Greg asked.

Onyx looked up at the rocket growing further and further away. She clenched her fists and refused to stand here and do nothing.

"I'm bringing them back."

She pushed off the ground and rose higher and higher, chasing after the rocket ship. It was faster than her, and had a serious head start, but she kept pushing and pushing herself to try and get closer; she refused to let Pearl get away without a stern yelling at.

The ship sailed over the ocean and Onyx behind it, it activated some sort of extra rockets and made a sharp turn up into the air. It threw Onyx for a loop and made her stop in place for a moment but when she was ready to go again she flew up at them so fast that she distorted the water underneath her.

As the ship climbed higher and higher and she pushed herself harder and harder to try and keep up with the spaceship. Her body felt like it was condensing, fighting against the speeds she was flying, her energy rose and as Onyx gave it her all… her vision started to blur and change: the sky became darker with hundreds of stars and there was still the spaceship but it was… different, sleeker, it glowed with a purple light and she felt like she was chasing down an entirely different ship… but a familiar ship. She was interrupted from this thought when as she was flying towards it and she saw a beam of light hit it and explode.

That explosion brought her back to reality, the sky turned back to the normal earth sky and the ship turned back to a normal ship, just one that exploded. She scanned the area, looking for some sort of sign that Pearl and Steven had made it out safely and was glad to see them on a parachute slowly floating back down to the ground.

She flew over to them, aiding in getting back down to the ground a bit faster. She cut them out of the chair and carried them both back down to Greg and the barn, the minute they touched the ground Steven ran to his dad and hugged him, apologizing for going off with Pearl. Steven and Pearl were happy to be back… but that was about to change.

"Pearl… can I talk to you in private please?" Onyx said with a deadly calmness.

Pearl looked fearful when she said that. "S-sure."

Onyx led Pearl to one side of the barn, where they were far enough away so as not to be heard. When Onyx retracted her wings she felt her body being drained of energy, she wobbled and leaned up against the barn for support. Clearly pushing herself to try and catch up with a ship capable of leaving the planet wasn't a good idea.

"Are you okay?" Pearl asked concernedly.

Onyx sighed. "No… I'm going to be furious in about a minute and a half. You have that long to explain yourself before I shout at you. Use it wisely."

Pearl winced in fear, she did her best to collect her thoughts. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put Steven in danger like that, I was just so excited to show him the wonders of space. I had thought for thousands of years that I would never be able to see the majesty of the galaxy again and when I had this chance… I just couldn't say no to it. I was foolish, and I apologize."

When Pearl had finished talking Onyx was ready to let out all her anger and frustration but… she was too tired, too drained to force herself to scream at Pearl. She settled for stepping closer, making sure that she was only a few inches away from Pearls face, and making her points slowly in a deeper tone.

She held up a finger "One: You took Steven into space without talking to any of us, that's selfish and neglectful behavior. Two: You jumped at the first chance to go back into space with a spaceship that you seemed to have built within the span of a day, you didn't test it properly and you were reckless. Three: …"

Onyx accentuated this point by poking Pearl in the chest.

"If anything had happened to you, or Steven, the rest of us would have felt devastated and helpless that there was nothing we could have done to save either of you. The next time something like this happens, I will NOT hold myself back."

She walked past Pearl.

"I'll see you back at the temple."

As Onyx walked away she could just feel the shame and pain welling up inside Pearl, she now knew completely what she had done wrong… it honestly didn't make Onyx feel good knowing Pearl was like this, but she knew that she needed to learn.

She walked back towards the van and Steven.

"Good night Steven, I'll see you at the temple."

Onyx extended her wings again, but she felt a pain crawl up her back when she did. Using so much energy like this so quickly clearly wasn't good for her.

"_Come on Onyx… just fly back to the temple, then you can rest."_

She hopped up and gently glided back to the temple where she promptly crashed into her bed without talking to anyone else. She was just too exhausted to care.

* * *

So Onyx was mad at Pearl for several days… again, but life still went on, even if she wasn't there to see it.

* * *

She stepped out of the temple after… she had no idea, but her sleep was deep and rejuvenating. She saw the rest of the group sitting in the living room and eating pizza together, all of them were eating a slice, except for Amethyst who had two in her mouth and in each hand.

When she saw Onyx her eyes widened and she seemed happier, she chewed down on her pizza and swallowed in a huge gulp.

"Onyx! You're back girl." Amethyst said.

Onyx rubbed her eyes and smiled. "Yeah… sorry, I went quite a few days without rest and I guess that chase was the tipping point."

"Well we saved you some pizza." Steven said.

Onyx sat on the couch between Garnet and Amethyst, she reached over to the table and grabbed a slice of pizza.

"Thanks guys."

She took a tentative bite and enjoyed the texture and hot ingredients in her mouth.

"So, did I miss anything while I was out?" She asked.

Garnet smiled a bit. "Let me tell you a story…"

And so Garnet started explaining what happened when Pearl and Amethyst accidently released the gem shards and how they made a mad dash to try and retrieve them all without her finding out, but of course she did and they were all taught a lesson.

Onyx laughed when she heard this, but it also taught her an important lesson, emphasized by them all gathering around to talk and eat pizza: they're a team, no matter what they think or what mistakes they make they were still a team at the end of the day and they relied and trusted each other. Sure Onyx released Lapis, but Pearl almost killed Steven, and Amethyst released some shards that could have caused a lot more trouble.

They all had flaws, but they worked together well and that's what mattered.

They are the Crystal Gems… and they're the best defense this planet has.

**Now, I think that because i've been gone so long I owe you people something more. So, write a review, ask me any questions you want and as many questions you want and I will answer them to the best of my abilities. Any questions I answer will have their answers posted at the beginning of the next chapter. Have a great day everyone.**


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